Secrets
by S. Ryder
Summary: Before he becomes Nightwing, Robin and Batgirl embark on a mystery that is as complex and complicated as the relationship they have together
1. part one

Barbara looked at her faint reflection through the old diner's window. She pulled her hair into a pony tail and looked at the plain black shirt and jeans she had worn to work. Dick Grayson walked through the door. She exhaled, noticing that he was just wearing his college sweatshirt and jeans. He saw Barbara in the corner and took a seat across from her at the booth.  
  
"So what's good here?" he said as his eyes looked at Harvey Bullock taking advantage of the old jelly doughnuts on sale for half price at the counter.  
  
"To be honest. I don't have a clue. Dad and I always got coffee here." She smiled.  
  
"Coffee? How long have you been drinking coffee?" he asked as he took out the notebook with "criminology" written on it from his backpack.  
  
"Too long. Dad's never on time so I would come here and drink coffee until he got here. I guess that's how I became a night person." She said looking down at the cup of coffee in front of her.  
  
"I know how that is." He asked, realizing the words shouldn't have been said when he saw her confused and ready to question look. Barbara was the only girl he couldn't play stupid with.  
  
"What do you mean? You're not a night person, are you Grayson? You always seemed like an early bird to me. Always taking early classes and such." She said opening up her book.  
  
"Well. it started when I was in the circus. Our shows would usually take place at night, and after that I couldn't just go to sleep. We all had to get everything packed before we could hit the road for the next night. I guess I couldn't change after that." He said as the grungey middle aged waitress came to the table.  
  
"What will you two study birds be having today?" she asked as she wiped the grease off of her hand and onto her apron before she took her pen and paper out.  
  
"I'll have a waffle with strawberries," Dick said as he handed the waitress the menu.  
  
" That sounds good, I think I'll have the same," Barbara said as she pointed to her cup.  
  
" That'll be about fifteen minutes," the lady said.  
  
" Listen, Babs. I need to apologize about last night. Bruce needed me to help him out with a business project that was really important to him. It was the last thing I wanted to do on a Friday night." Dick said, wandering if he should make a move for her hand.  
  
"Don't worry about it. I guess it's necessary. I mean you'll be taking over Wayne Industries and Bruce needs to see that you're dedicated."  
  
"I don't know if I really want to be a businessman like Bruce. That's why I'm in college. Anyways I hope I just didn't leave you alone last night."  
  
"I said don't worry about it. I errr.hung out with a new friend that I made and did some criminology stuff." She said giving the classic half smile.  
  
"Friend?" Dick became red inside but gave a poker face. "This wouldn't be a guy friend, Barbara Gordon?"  
  
"Well, yeah but I barely know the guy. I don't want to reveal too much. He doesn't either. Heck he might have a girlfriend for all I know. It'll probably lead nowhere." She looked down at the table and then into Dick's eyes. "No commitment or anything."  
  
"Oh," Dick said. "How did you meet him?" Dick said drilling his fork underneath the table through out Barbara's long pause.  
  
"Well, it's funny.heh.that you ask that." She rolled her fingers through her hair. "He's actually into criminology too. He's been in it for a longer time than the two of us. I guess he's sort of tutored me, but I think it's the other way around sometimes." She said blushing and giving a laugh even though it was an inside joke.  
  
Dick faked a laugh too, "Well that's good, Babs. You deserve the best."  
  
"Suuure Grayson. My answering machine is just filled with that many applicants."  
  
"You're almost as modest as Bruce." He said laughing.  
  
"Please. I haven't had a guy ask me out in a year. I mean, I'm not going to say what I deserve but it just seems that most guys are afraid of making any move or sign of interest. Dad's not the most open to seeing me date, but just because he's the Commissioner doesn't mean he'll have the SWAT team follow me on a date. Well.maybe just Harvey Bullock but would could out chase him." Harvey looked behind the counter, not understanding how his name was connected to the laughter that came from the two college students behind him.  
  
"What about you Grayson? Has my room mate gotten a call back from you or have you gotten to her on your list?" she asked.  
  
"You're the pretty much the only girl I spend time with Gordon, if you can believe that." He said.  
  
"You know that I can tell when you're lying. You tap your hand like you're playing the piano against the table when you're lying." Dick raised his eyebrow then noticed his hand. "hehe.. I'm a police officer's daughter, detective skills are in my blood"  
  
"Well you should know that most girls hear my name and dollar signs pop in their eyes." He said looking at his waffle that had been waiting on the kitchen counter.  
  
"Yeah, but I know that most girls like you more than the other rich guys because you don't act like a snob. You 've been volunteering your time to the orphanage as long as I can remember. You're smart, funny, an athlete, and.."  
  
Dick looked up at her. "And?"  
  
"You say another word after this and I'll sock you in the nose."  
  
"And?"  
  
"You're.attractive."  
  
"Haha. Barbara Gordon finally gives up and admits her undying love for me. In time I knew it would come."  
  
"You're also full of yourself, Grayson." She said as Dick did his fake victory dance in his booth.  
  
"It's okay Babs. Hate to break your heart but you're probably better off with a different guy." The tone became serious. "I'm not relationship material."  
  
"And Why is that."  
  
"Well if you haven't noticed. I can't commit. Not like most girls expect me to. This whole business thing with Bruce. It's like. I live two separate lives. I can't be the guy a girl wants me to be if I'm never around. There's just too much weird stuff that's been going on in my life, all I can be is a friend."  
  
"Makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. But you still haven't fessed up to you lie." She took a sip of coffee and looked out the window. "Whose the girl you don't want to talk about."  
  
"I.err. met her through business. Bruce was out of town one weekend and she came in to help. I like her .she's beautiful, but we don't get along that well. For all I know she's probably into Bruce. They sort of have the same style." He said.  
  
"Well cheer up Grayson, there'll be others."  
  
"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be able to mix the business with pleasure. Bruce has already taught me a few times that that's not the best idea."  
  
"Same thing kind of goes with this guy I went out with last night. Dad met him and knew him before I did and it'd just be weird if we were together. He's a great guy but has a few issues that dad might not like. I mean dad still hasn't given up the hopes that the two of us will get together."  
  
"What?" Dick said laughing, putting his hands behind his head.  
  
"Please Grayson, don't play dumb. Dad's been trying to set us up since the first time we met."  
  
"First time we met? I find that.a little hard to believe." He said half coughing.  
  
"Oh, well it's been cornily hinted between Dad and Bruce for a long time."  
  
"You remember the first time we met?" Dick asked nervously.  
  
"It's not something that anyone could forget. Is it?" Barbara said shly.  
  
"Guess not."  
  
"I remember getting up early. I never get up early, because Dad was going to take the day off so we could see it. The television wouldn't stop talking about it, and being a gymnast - well - seeing the Flying Grayson's in person is like seeing the Knights playing in the Super Bowl.  
  
Dad and I never really had any time together. He was always working, but that day we saw the animals, we ate snow cones, we heard the clowns jokes and laughed at them. I sat by Bruce and Vicki, or what ever his girlfriend at the time's name was and I bought a poster of The Flying Graysons. I was going to get to see them, you, after the performance. I guess I did get to go down, it just wasn't the way I expected."  
  
  
  
The waffles were placed on the table, stopping the conversation.  
  
"The clowns tried talking to me," Dick said as he took a bite of his waffle. "but aside from the few police officers, no one bothered me. I sat there on the elephant stand, just wandering about what just happened= wandering about what was going to happen."  
  
"You looked alone. Dad was busy questioning everybody. I just wanted to."  
  
"You told me that I did a good job. I told you thanks and walked away. Then you told me about your mom. I stopped walking and I told you that I was fine."  
  
"You tapped your fingers on the pole," Barbara said trying not to cry. "Like you were playing the piano."  
  
Dick paused. "Then you told be about Batman. How he was real. How you saw him. How he flew through the air, like I did up there."  
  
"You told did a headstand during half of our conversation. You didn't want me to feel sorry for you."  
  
"Then your dad came, told me that he wanted to ask me more questions, introduced me to Bruce, and you."  
  
"Said that Bruce was the nicest guy I knew, had a big house and a funny uptight butler with a british accent. Dad wouldn't let a boy spend the night and said the house was too much of a mess for you to stay with us anyways. So I said that Bruce Wayne needed the company and if he was boring you."  
  
"You would have been there for me," Dick said not able to look into her blue eyes. "at the station."  
  
"Yeah, well, you were pretty easy to relate to. I was a bookworm/tom girl back then, so it was hard to make friends. I didn't have the mother/daughter moments that all of the girls had so I resented them for that."  
  
"I guess I never thanked you. I guess I never said sorry for getting so distant after that."  
  
"It's no big deal, Grayson. Bruce keeps you busy for good reason." She said finishing her waffle.  
  
"Yeah, but there's other things than work that I wanted to do."  
  
"I was a study bug through out high school, I just read - did gymastics and judo. Then came home to tell daddy all about it. Now that we're past that, I have a question for you?"  
  
"Shoot away," he said.  
  
"Why do you think that the professor assigned us to this project?" she asked as she looked at the well written letter that addressed the assignment.  
  
"Well G-O-R-D-O-N and G-R-A-Y-S-O-N are alphabetically next to each other. That's how he did the entire class. It's stupid, but I guess it worked out in our benefit. I mean we do have the highest grades in the class." He said admiring his achievement.  
  
"Guess you're right, but everyone else got assignments from last year about specific recently SOLVED crimes. We got an recently UNSOLVED crime. It's the first time this has ever happened in his four year's of teaching."  
  
"He.He's probably just giving us a hard time because both of us have backgrounds in this and wants to make sure that we're not cheating."  
  
"Both of us?" Barbara asked.  
  
"Babs. Didn't you know that Bruce was a Criminology major too?" Dick said.  
  
"Sorry, I guess I always thought he was a business major." She said passing her dirty plate to the bus boy. "Well maybe we could work on this tonight, after dinner or something. I know it's due in a few weeks but this could be fun for us. Aside from the balls and banquets we've been to, we really haven't talked in awhile."  
  
"You're actually the first person that I've been assigned to work with that actually wants to do the work. Throughout my years at Prep I was always doing everything, which wasn't bad because I never had free time to work with them"  
  
"Are you telling me."  
  
"Bruce is out of town and I promised I'd go to a dinner for him." Barbara watched his fingers roll on the table as if he were a jazz pianist.  
  
"Oh," she said. "well you know.it's really alright. You know me, I'm a person who likes to work alone and if it doesn't go my way.."  
  
"Sorry Babs, how about dinner at five at the Manor, tomorrow? We might make a decent team"  
  
She paused as he beat her to picking up the check.  
  
"I.already have plans," she said.  
  
"Well why don't you cover the police field notes and I study the history of the jade cat?" he said we'll see each other in class on Monday and talk about it there.  
  
"That sounds fine Dick," she said making sure she had all of her books.  
  
"Bruce should be in town soon, so I'll probably get a lot of free time in the future."  
  
"You're hard work should be rewarded, Dick."  
  
His cell phone rang.  
  
"hello"  
  
"oh hey, yeah Alfred I'll need a new suit for tonight"  
  
"did she call? Tell her I'll call her before I leave."  
  
"yeah, she could just stop on by if she wanted, I guess"  
  
Barbara picked up her purse, mouthed "thanks" to Dick and then walked out of the diner.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Leslie Thompkins showed up at the door of Wayne Manor. Alfred, who was accustomed to opening the door was out raced by Dick.  
  
"Glad you could come at such short notice," Dick said happily.  
  
"Tell me what you know," she said as the two walked over to the living room.  
  
"It's been three days." He said taking a seat.  
  
"We have a device in his belt that allows us to find him or his body," he didn't want to make eyes contact with her, "if the worst should happen. Right now it's not showing up."  
  
"The car?" she asked as if she were the mother - not the doctor.  
  
"I found it, by the docks. It's condition is fine."  
  
"Who do you think it was?"  
  
"I've been going through the files, there are so many of them though. Not many people liked him, remember?" he said grimly. "I know which ones are locked up, but that never stops us from an inside man."  
  
"Who is out," she asked.  
  
"Harvey, Pamela, Matt.the list is too long."  
  
"Where were you when this happened?" she asked suspiciously.  
  
"There were two crimes at once. A bank robbery and the museum robbery. He told me to take the bank, the police said that they were a bunch of unknown thugs. The jade cat was a target for weeks, we expected Catwoman to hit it."  
  
"So Selina could be the mastermind?" Leslie said believing she had solved the crime.  
  
"Unfortunately the surveillance tapes were tampered with. She's never been out to kidnap or kill Bruce. I know her style - that's not it." He said.  
  
"Criminals often change patterns, Dick. What about this new person on the news whose been with you?" she asked watching Dick blush.  
  
"Her name is Batgirl. She.doesn't cause too much trouble. She even helped me out of a situation the other night."  
  
"Do you know her identity?" she asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"She could be there to lead you away from what you are looking for." Leslie said boldly.  
  
"I doubt it, she has helped us in other situations against different criminals. She even saved Bruce her first night out."  
  
"Do you know that it's the same person?" she said and was surprised by the look on Dick's face.  
  
"Yeah," he said convincingly.  
  
"How can you be sure?"  
  
"Because of the smell of her hair."  
  
"Listen, I've known you for many years and understand that you're a grown man but I would recommend that you don't slee"  
  
"We really don't get along that well out there, so no need to worry - Leslie. I asked you to come here because I need to know what I should do."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"If the worst has happened, then what do I do? I've been fine, taking this sidekick role for the last ten years. I don't regret it, I just don't know if this is something I've wanted to do for my entire life. I'm not sure if I want Bruce's life, his legacy."  
  
" I knew this time would come," she sighed. "My advice?"  
  
"Yes," he said folding his hands.  
  
"I know that I've been doing this for you two. I realize the sacrifices you have made in your life as Dick are reflecting the same as Bruce's. You must measure which values are more important to you. Do you want to be the family man with wife and kids? Or do you want to be the one that protects them?" she said.  
  
She hugged him tightly with her fragile body and whispered into his ear. "Find Bruce, I don't know what I would do if I didn't have the late night calls asking me to treat a simple bullet wound."  
  
"Thank you, I appreciate your help." He said as he escorted the elderly woman to the door.  
  
"You know Bruce was going through the same thing at your age," she said as she walked out into the sunlight.  
  
"Oh yeah, what did you tell him?" he asked.  
  
"To talk to Alfred"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Batman's been missing for days and as soon as word spreads we'll have every freak hitting the streets," Jim Gordon told his daughter as he was getting dressed after dinner.  
  
"You think that he's okay, dad?" Barbara said fiddling around with her dinner.  
  
"I hope," he said fixing his tie in the mirror, "for my sake."  
  
Barbara looked at the paper, "What about Batgirl and Robin?"  
  
"They're doing all they can. They stopped a few muggers by the docks the other nights." Jim hugged his daughter and saw the signal flashing out above their apartment. "Don't stay up late for me"  
  
"I think I might be in the dorms, this weekend. I have a big project I've been working on. Thanks for the copies of the field notes of the jade cat robbery." She smiled.  
  
"What copies?" he winked and walked out the door.  
  
Gordon walked down the stairs and into the police car waiting for him. Detective Montoya nodded at him and handed him a folder.  
  
"What do we have here?" Jim asked.  
  
"The video camera connection was actually hacked into so it would appear scrambled. One of our lab junkies was able to unscramble something that looks like this."  
  
The feed was of a woman in a black, or dark colored catsuit. Jim didn't have to say what is on his mind. "Good job, Montoya. I want you and Bullock to get on finding Selina Kyle"  
  
"Let's just hope we can get a hold of her," Montoya said as she started the car for the short drive to the police station.  
  
"So is that why we have the light on tonight?" Jim said keeping his eye on the signal.  
  
"Actually we caught two of Two-Face's old henchmen trying to rob a store tonight, they say that they were working for Catwoman. She might be planning something soon."  
  
"Where are they now?" he asked.  
  
"Posted bail under a woman with a pen name," she said.  
  
They heard Bullock's voice in the transmitter. "What is it Bullock?"  
  
"Two kids in costumes are on the roof asking me Trick or Treat" he laughed.  
  
"We're outside the door." Jim said as he rushed into the police building and to the elevator with Montoya.  
  
"Sir, should I get a warrant for Selina Kyle's arrest?" the female detective asked.  
  
"That sounds fine, Renne. Be careful with this assignment. Selina has been very mysterious through out her years as Catwoman. I want her picture to be given to every airport, train station, port, and toll booth worker in a forty mile radius."  
  
"Will do, Sir." The door to the top floor opened. As they were greeted by an un-amused Bullock eating a jelly doughnut.  
  
"Bullock I put you and Renee to track down Selina Kyle." He saw the two crimefighters standing on the edge of the building, arguing like school children. "Batgirl and Robin?"  
  
The two stopped their fighting and walked over to the Commissioner He looked at Robin.  
  
"Where is your boss?"  
  
"He and Superman are taking care of some guy. Brainiac the dark lord of evil or something like that." Robin said scratching his head while Montoya gave a funny look as Bullock laughed.  
  
" When is he coming back?" Montoya asked.  
  
"Doesn't seem like we need him, we already got the jade cat mystery solved without you twos." Bullock said as Robin gave him a funny face when Gordon and Montoya weren't looking.  
  
"He'll be back soon," Robin said as he looked at the folder Gordon held in his hand.  
  
"You two will be glad to hear that our beliefs were right. The surveillance video at the museum was tampered with but we were able to get a few glimpses of Catwoman when we unscrambled it.  
  
"Mind if I take a look?" Batgirl said as she swiped the folder from Gordon's hand before he could hand it to Robin.  
  
She looked at five blown up pictures from a video camera. The first one was of two legs sliding down a rope from the roof. The second was of Catwoman and three men hanging around the cat statue. The third was of her taking the statue. Robin and Batgirl's' eyes opened widely as they saw Batman approach two of the henchmen. The last was of Batman knocked down and being carried by two men.  
  
"I take it he got out okay, right son?" Gordon said tipping down his glasses.  
  
"Yeah, he got out of it but by then Catwoman was gone," he said tapping his fingers on the folder.  
  
"What did you need us for, Commissioner?" Batgirl interrupted.  
  
"Catwoman might have something planned soon. We caught some boys who said that they were working for her we got them to fess up before they were posted bail. Didn't seem too bright so they could be back to work for all we know."  
  
"Or hope" Montoya intruded. "They're living at the same place and we have a detective staking them out right now. The men haven't left. It'd be nice if you two could be an extra set of eyes."  
  
"I think we can handle that," Batgirl said take a piece of paper from the other female detective. Robin approved of the idea, but not of the control.  
  
"Check back with us tomorrow night," Jim said as he watched the two leave, "and good luck."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Batgirl and Robin sat silently watching the two thugs watch TV.  
  
"So where is Batman?" Batgirl asked.  
  
"He's ." she made eye contact with him. "He's missing. I haven't talked to him in days."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me that last night?"  
  
"Because I didn't want it on your mind," he said. "The whole town freaks out when he's gone. If I took I night off, no one would notice."  
  
"I didn't think you were in this for the fame," she said. "And if you really didn't want the whole town to freak out why didn't you put on his suit?"  
  
Robin was stunned. He remembered why Batman liked working alone.  
  
"I'm not in this for the fame and if I was I wouldn't be wearing tights," he said.  
  
She giggled. "How long have you been Robin? There's been a rumor that there's been four, five, maybe six Robins. One was even a girl. Dad said he knows the answer, I think there's only one but I could be wrong."  
  
"There's only been one." He said and after that he thought he sounded a bit too much like Batman. "I started when I was in junior high or so."  
  
"And there's only been one."  
  
"Yeah, there will only be one too." He said.  
  
"What if. well .what if there wasn't a Batman? Would you become him?" she asked.  
  
"We fight for the same reasons, but I'm not him. The whole thing has made him into a different person. It's his life." He said.  
  
"I just did the Batgirl thing and thought I'd do it once. It was one of those times where I felt like I had something to prove to myself that I could," she said.  
  
"What made you come back? Batman's undying speeches that involved you not being ready?"  
  
"Heh.no," she said reducing the space between the two of them on the ledge. He was too busy looking through the binoculars to notice.  
  
"I'm the average girl down there and I feel like that when I am - down there. When I'm doing this, when I float through the air and fly onto a rope then smack a bad guy in the face. That's when I feel, alive."  
  
"I took a night off when I was in high school, I had a date that I had a crush on for as long as I can remember. She had this dress which made my friends hate me.uh she went to a different school so it was the first time they saw her too. and the whole night."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"The whole night I felt like I was messing up because I wasn't out here."  
  
"I don't know if I could stop doing this. It's a rush and it still hasn't gotten old. When I'm out there I think about the long term and short term. In the short term I wander what Arkham escapee will I take out tonight. Lately, it seems like the long term dreams of having the picket fence and two point five kids is fading away."  
  
"This isn't a hobby or even a job, it's a vocation. Believe it or not but most of the superheroes don't even have double lives like you and me. That's all they do. It's a calling. Right now, I don't know if being a sidekick every night for the rest of my, his life is what I'm called to do."  
  
"They're leaving." She said as Robin sat up and took a remote control from his belt, pressed a button and watched the Batwing hover through the sky, toward them.  
  
Robin hopped into the cockpit, then looked at Batgirl still standing on the rooftop.  
  
"Don't tell me you're afraid of flying?" he smiled.  
  
"Afraid of flying? No. Afraid of your flying skills? Yes." She said as she carefully took the seat behind him on the jet. He closed the cockpit and set the plane to spiral into the air at full speed. "C'mon I've only crashed this thing, once or twice."  
  
"You're just too good with your words, Boy Blunder."  
  
Looking at the Bat-camera shot from the computer screen they saw the two men get inside a sleek black truck.  
  
"Where are you boys going, it's past curfew." He said watching the van speed off.  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"They're passing Main, heading towards Behney."  
  
"Oh, should we call the police?"  
  
"No, I think we can handle this."  
  
"It looks like they're going into the warehouse district," he said hesitantly.  
  
"What could they steal there?" she asked.  
  
"What could they hide there?" he said looking back at her.  
  
"Or who," she said softly.  
  
The police radio light was flashing on the control panel in front of Batgirl. She pressed the right button.  
  
"This is officer Montoya, officer Bullock and I have separated on a field chase for what appears to be Selina Kyle's right hand man. I'm on foot on 11th and Memphis please send back up. Suspect is armed and dangerous. I repeat 11th and Memphis."  
  
"We should help her," Batgirl protested.  
  
"We're on these guys right now, I'm sure she caught him before he was on his way here. By the time we get over there both of the events might be over."  
  
They watched the truck stop and three men go into the building.  
  
"Guess we might as well see what's going down since we spent all this time coming here." She said as Robin hovered the aircraft down a block away from the scene.  
  
Tip toeing over the metal roof of the old dark warehouse they looked through an old window and saw the two men walk past boxes over to Catwoman. She slapped them with her whip.  
  
"Someone is mad that they were caught," she smiled as she got hold of here batarang.  
  
"Not yet, he whispered."  
  
"How are we going to do this?" she asked as their eyes focused on a man who came out of the dark.  
  
Along with his nice suit he wore a sleek black cowl which only had openings for his eyes. Also in his hand was a pistol, which he pointed at one of the men for a second while chewing him out.  
  
"That's it, I'm going in." she said as she slowly opened the window.  
  
"No, if we go now.." He watched her quickly repel straight down over the mysterious gunman. "we're compromise the misson and never see Batman." He flung out through the window as well.  
  
Batgirl extended her leg when the gunman raised his pistol at her. The sound of shattered glass came with the sudden disappearance of light in the building. Gunshots and gunsmoke followed.  
  
Batgirl hit the ground hard, she couldn't make anything out of the darkness when she suddenly heard silence.  
  
CRASH. B'DUM. "AGGGH!" B'DUM.  
  
Wishing she had brought a flashlight she waited for her eyes to get used to the night. There were footsteps, some were of running others were of limping. She felt a hand rub the soft side of her stomach and raised her elbow high.  
  
"Ow. I think you broke my nose." The voice was Robin's.  
  
"Oh my god, I couldn't see a thing. I thought you were.."  
  
"Not smart enough to bring a mask without night vision capabilities?" he chuckled.  
  
"You were the one that took out the lights," she argued.  
  
"Well it was hard to choose between taking out the lights or watching you die."  
  
"Die? I had that guy and Catwoman taken care of!"  
  
"If you would've listened to me then we would've waited until we saw if they had Batman or not. Rescues him and.  
  
The two paused their debate when they heard a man shout from the side of the door.  
  
"Unfortunately that never happened. It is also tragic that my first meeting with the two of you has indeed become my last." The mysterious gunman said.  
  
Batgirl heard something breeze past by her followed by the sound of Robin fall to the ground.  
  
"To our luck the same night that we were going to blow this place up is the same night Batgirl and Robin decide to drop on by. No better way to go. The Bird has it's wing's clipped while the other one is Blind as a Bat."  
  
"Robin!? What's going on?" Batgirl asked.  
  
"My legs, some one threw a bola at them, I can't- can't get out of them. You have to take my mask and get out of here before this place blows." He said reaching up and tapping her hand.  
  
"I can't let you do that."  
  
"You don't have many options, do you?" he said as she heard the sound of him pulling his mask off.  
  
"Use your remote control. call the Batwing to go above that window up there and we'll get out."  
  
She saw the plane fly above the window and felt him whisper in her ear. "Hurry, hold on."  
  
The sound of the bat-grapple hurt her ears, then she saw the moonlight smeared ceiling. She looked at Robin's hand. He hadn't put his mask back on. When she looked up she heard the explosion, they flew up as the dust made her cover her eyes by burying her face in Robin's chest.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Keep your head there," Robin grimly whispered into her ear as they were flying through the air. If he let go of his grip on her to put on his mask she might slide down.  
  
"It's all right, I won't look, Robin," she said closing her eyes tightly even though she was truly curious inside.  
  
Gliding feet above rooftops Robin's eyes widened when he saw a condo with a pool on top heading towards him. "Get ready to let go and drop. Trust me." He said as he let go of his grip on the grapple.  
  
The two hit the pool and separated as they descended to the bottom. Robin reached for his remote to the Batwing telling it to stop where it was. He flipped around and put his mask on, and began to swim his way to the top.  
  
He sat on the side of the pool with her, she looked shook up. The sound of sirens were so normal in his life that he thought it was silent outside.  
  
"I should call Gordon, tell him that Catwoman's not the only one we have on our hands?"  
  
"I screwed up tonight. We should've gone by your rules. You're the one with a superhero training degree."  
  
"All that matters is that we got out of this okay," he said looking into the water.  
  
"I think I should go how, leave this one to you." She said looking at the smoke from the fire, covering the city. Her body becoming cold when it touched the air.  
  
"You know I can't let you do that," he said as she turned around shocked.  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"I'm the one with the superhero degree. And rule 14 says that you never leave your partner."  
  
"They are right about you Robin."  
  
"You're not Batman. He'd be interrogating me like he was Harvey Dent up here."  
  
"Yeah, well I figure that if I stay alone with my thoughts I might go crazy and think I was a bat."  
  
"Is that what it's like? With him?" she said shivering.  
  
"He talks to me more than you but it's all business."  
  
"You sound like an angry house wife."  
  
"I don't know how to cook and I'm pretty messy in person."  
  
"Uh-huh.what are you like.in person?"  
  
"Typical guy I guess.maybe more tired than most." He winked.  
  
"It's none of my business but do you have a."  
  
"No." he paused looking at her gloved hand right by his. "You?"  
  
  
  
"There was a guy, but no commitment ever came."  
  
"Oh, that's a shame. I just don't see myself being in anything. This world or the one down there. I'm tired of telling my friends secrets, I can't fall - have a girlfriend if I keep this from her."  
  
"I know what you mean, it's like you find someone and want to tell them everything but when you think of who we are - in ordinary terms - it just seems too complicated."  
  
" You know what I've been trying to figure out these last few days?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why we found the Batmobile by the docks."  
  
"Oh.I.I don't know."  
  
"He told me to take the bank robbery while he would go to the muesem when we were on the Wayne Tech building up on 50th street."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"The docks are miles away from the museum and the hideout that we were at last night."  
  
"We searched the area for him all night and you said that there wasn't any tampering with it."  
  
"But that doesn't mean that he wasn't once there." He showed her the remote to the Batwing. "They probably destroyed his belt so we couldn't detect him, but the remote for the Batmobile is different than the one for the Batwing. It was placed inside of his glove for events like this. He placed the Batmobile there as a clue"  
  
"We need to go back there," she said as she got up from the pool.  
  
"Before you know it you'll be graduating Suma Cum Lade."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"So what do we look for?" Batgirl said looking at the pier where the Batmobile had been the night before.  
  
"Why would they be at the docks?" he asked.  
  
"Gordon," she whispered.  
  
"What?" he asked trying to understand it.  
  
"Well the police figured out that it was Selina Kyle. Usually when they are looking for a criminal they set up blocks at toll booths, airports, and train stations. The Docks are shady and the perfect place for a criminal to go." She said.  
  
"But Selina Kyle, Catwoman, is still in town. So why would she go there?" he asked.  
  
"Well.she could have sent the cat to a seller."  
  
"Catwoman usually keeps the artifacts to herself," he said walking up some boxes in the docks.  
  
"People change," she said following him.  
  
"The guy in the mask, tonight. He's not a regular. Maybe he came into town last night."  
  
"He wasn't in the video, either. Maybe Catwoman was stealing two things last night?" she said.  
  
"Maybe she was getting the cat and taking Batman. You said she wouldn't sell the cat on the market but I'm sure Batman would have a higher price."  
  
"You might be onto something here. It's all adding up. Batman had to have been on a boat sometime, the car wouldn't go near the water. That means he wasn't a casualty in the explosion."  
  
"We need to find out what boats left over the last few days." She said looking at him nervously. "But Robin, we have to find Catwoman if we really want to find him."  
  
"Let's check her apartment. Maybe we'll beat Montoya and Bullock to it - it seems like they had their hands full in that chase." He said.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
On the balcony of the top floor of Gotham Heights Robin looked at Batgirl, "What is it?" she asked looking at his akward face.  
  
"Nothing," he said rolling his fingers on the glass. "I don't think she'd be here but keep your eyes open."  
  
"If you're nervous, I'd understand. Most birds don't like cats." She laughed as he opened the door.  
  
The room, filled with various art pieces involving the feline family looked as normal as expected.  
  
Batgirl looked at the memos on Selina's work desk.  
  
"She was planning a trip this Sunday." She said scratching her head.  
  
"We'll find out when and where it is. She's not the best, but can become a good enough master of disguise."  
  
"Well I don't think we could walk in the airport wearing this, Robin." She said.  
  
"We can't really go there as civilians, can we?" he said trying to laugh the awkwardness off.  
  
"Not unless we."  
  
"This Mr. X must have some power on Selina," he sighed.  
  
"Why is that?" she said as she watched Robin look through the kitchen cabinets.  
  
"She hasn't fed the cats."  
  
He was right, the cats rushed over to the food once he opened the bags.  
  
"I guess cats do have those few months where they aren't the same." She raised an eyebrow.  
  
The two searched the room and hacked into her safe. No sign of left over clues. No sign of the cat. No sign of Batman.  
  
"It's almost daylight, let's get some sleep and see if the GCPD faithful can get anything done in the short time between."  
  
"About the airport, Robin. If you are willing. We could go as civilians."  
  
"It's not that I don't trust you, Batgirl. Doing that makes everything, complicated. I say we call Gordon and track that flight. Right now the docks and that carry our only leads. You're a good crime-fighter, It would- it would have been hard to do this alone." He said rubbing her arms as he turned away.  
  
"Robin, you never have bothered finding out who I really am. Does it not matter to you?" she spat out, turning red thinking that she became a whinny girl.  
  
"Well, you never tried finding out who I am. Guess we're the same. Too lazy to actually do it." He said.  
  
"Can I. call you.or something?" she said.  
  
He reached for his belt and took out a small tube the size of his palm.  
  
"This is a communicator to the Batcave. If you find anything out before I do, press the green button and speak in it. I'll.I'll sleep there tonight." He said.  
  
"Take care," he said as he jumped off the roof and into the cockpit.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Barbara woke up and looked at her wide eyed teddy bear, Pookie. She heard her father talking on the balcony.  
  
"Guess Batman's Back?" she told her bear.  
  
Yawning out of the room as if she was going to get a glass of water she saw Robin talking to Jim.  
  
"This is just really hard for me to take in? Are you sure?" she heard him say.  
  
She moved a strand of her hair away from her green eyes to meet the masked man.  
  
"oh my, he set me up. That wasn't a communicater it was a tracking device."  
  
"Miss Gordon," Robin said sternly.  
  
"Daddy what time is it?" she asked as her heart was racing at a million miles per hour.  
  
"It's almost 4:30, go back to sleep. Robin's just telling me about Selina Kyle's newest activity."  
  
"Oh, have you had any luck with the case?" she said pretending to pretend to be interested.  
  
"Nothing yet," Gordon said as he turned to Batman's sidekick. "go to sleep, honey. You got that big date you were talking about tomorrow."  
  
Robin's armes folded. "I'm sorry for bothering you -and your family - Commisioner. Tell your squad to be careful tomorrow. People aren't what they seem to be these days."  
  
Jim looked down at his note and by the time he looked up the Yellow Caped hero had dissapeared.  
  
"One day I'll have a video to see how you do that." He said looking below his balcony where there was no one to be found.  
  
"So did you find out anything new?" she said realizing that the communicator was feet away in the closet.  
  
"Selina might have a date at the Gotham International Airport, tomorrow. We're sending some of our undercover unit down there to scout it out. Other than that there isn't much," he said as he got a glass of water with her.  
  
"How was your night, pumpkin?"  
  
"Just did a lot of work."  
  
"Whose the date that you have tomorrow?" he said trying to sound like he was hip.  
  
"I couldn't ask the guy at the last minute. Things are just so busy in my life lately, you know how that is." She said as she sipped her water.  
  
"Guess there's a world of time out there, but as hard as it is for me to lose my little girl I want to see her happy."  
  
"I'm happy, dad." She said giving him a light punch on the arm.  
  
"It's just that I'm young and looking for so much in a guy that it's almost like I need to find two." eating her words once she saw her fathers look. "don't think I've turned evil dad, I'm all or nothing girl when it comes to guys."  
  
"What about Dick Grayson? Reminds me of the old chip off the old block." He said cleaning his glasses.  
  
"Dick's just.really too bust in his life too, I guess."  
  
"I know that you have a lot of stuff important going on in your life, Barbara, but if you stop yourself from finding something right you might regret it forever. I still haven't wished that I never took that night off of work to meet your mother." She hugged the aging officer and kissed him on the cheek.  
  
"Well what I'm really keeping myself from now is sleep, dad. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight"  
  
"Goodnight, hun."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Hey Grayson? Are you there?" Barbara said. Dick held the phone to his ear while laying in bed, trying to find the clock.  
  
"Yeah, Babs, is something wrong?" he said.  
  
"Well yeah, I guess I am right when I say that you aren't a morning person. It's 10:30 and you haven't woke up."  
  
"What made you decide to interrupt me from my beauty sleep?"  
  
"You were becoming too much of a pretty boy."  
  
"If you don't get to the point my eyes will fall shut."  
  
"You're lucky I'm the Commissioner's daughter."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"This might sound crazy, but I found the best way to get an A on our report."  
  
"Which is?"  
  
"Being there when the crime is solved. I overheard dad talking this morning, it seems that Selina Kyle did steal the cat and is planning on taking a flight out of town in a matter of hours. It's not a crime to be at the airport, is it?`  
  
"Sounds dangerous."  
  
"So you're in?"  
  
"Yes." He smiled. Making his way to the bathroom he paused. "Um, Babs. You don't have any plans for today do you?"  
  
"After the airport, I probably should get going. I'm supposed to meet that guy." She said.  
  
"Oh, well I won't stop you. What's his name, maybe I know him." There was a long pause.  
  
"Rob-ert, doubt you know him. He's the dark and mysterious type."  
  
"Uh, so you two are going on a date?"  
  
"Something like that."  
  
"I see. Well I'm going to shower, now. We should probably meet there early, I have a lot of notes finished for the report. We can go over them, together."  
  
"That sounds like a plan, Kyle's flight is at 7 so maybe if we get there at 4 we could get something to eat."  
  
"Eat? I thought you were going on a date?"  
  
"Oh, we're just going to talk about crime all night. Maybe over a cup of coffee."  
  
"Crime? The guy just talks about crime when he's with you. I have got to meet this guy."  
  
"Well not just.crime.we tend to start off talking about that and it leads to other stuff."  
  
"That's probably too much for me to know," he said.  
  
"Probably, Dick. Get a shower - you probably need one after doing what ever you did during and after that dinner last night."  
  
"What d" he remembered what he told her, "What is that suppsossed to mean?"  
  
"Well whose the girl you and Alfred were talking about on the phone. The one you needed a new suit for?"  
  
"Oh," he laughed. "That was Leslie Thompkins. My date."  
  
There was a long pause as Barbara tried not to laugh at her stupidity.  
  
" Geesh Grayson, she's a nice lady but I don't see it working out between you two."  
  
"Leslie is like a grandmother to me"  
  
"Now THIS is telling me more than I need to know."  
  
They both laughed.  
  
"I'll see you at four."  
  
"Four it is."  
  
"Later Barbara."  
  
"Oh, and Dick. "  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Shower, because I do hate the smell of moth balls."  
  
"You know, you're right, Miss Gordon?"  
  
"How's that?" she said in amidst of unbearable laughter.  
  
"You are lucky that you are the Commissioner's Daughter."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A cloud of bats shattered through the caverns, as Robin sat away typing.  
  
"Five shipping boats were at that dock between the time Batman was kidnapped and the time we got there."  
  
"You don't expect that he was part of the explosion last night?" Alfred said bringing him soup along with the morning paper.  
  
Robin flipped through the pages and found the story on the explosion at the warehouse.  
  
"No bodies were found. " he looked at the Butler who was obviously trying to keep his composure. "Gordon would have contacted us about anything he wouldn't release to the press but Catwoman and this new guy, they seem too smart to know that it takes a lot more than blowing up a building to kill Batman."  
  
"I hope you're right, sir." He said as he watched him read other headlines in the paper. "How did you escape last night?"  
  
"Oh, well." he said shyly. "Batgirl and I were both trapped in the dark and she pointed out that our only way out was through the skylight and onto the batwing."  
  
"You seem to have more faith in the Batgirl than Master Bruce."  
  
"She deserves a chance. We're volunteers out there and could use as much help as we could."  
  
"I presume you're right, but is that really your reason?" Alfred said, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Sure it is." He said tapping his fingers on the table.  
  
"I guess my intuition is getting old these days. I just presumed that you two had a lot of common which might lead towards a."  
  
"A Bruce like relationship."  
  
"Do you have to see it that way, sir? This Batgirl seems to be on our side, which is something very uncommon with Master Bruce's relationships."  
  
"I guess."  
  
"Not to put this on you," Alfred said. "but as of now you are in charge. Should something happen which leads to Master Bruce not returning, you must make the decisions. I am not talking about attraction here but more or less good policy. If you are going to trust her with your life and mission, then you must trust her to hold other facts that are of lesser importance."  
  
"But Alfred.should we get together and have it not work out, then we're not only risking our social lives but the stability of a partnership and our mission."  
  
"Do you want her to stay and become part of this team?"  
  
"I - I guess."  
  
"I know that this is not the easiest job in both of your worlds. Should Bruce be gone, you will need someone to motivate you, someone to relate to."  
  
  
  
"I just need to figure out who I am before I do anything like this. Am I Robin or am I Dick. That's a completely different conversation that we have to have in the future. Right now I have to get going."  
  
"Good luck, sir."  
  
As he stepped up the stairs he hear a loud voice on the intercom.  
  
"Hey Boy Blunder you're probably sleeping like a vampire bat right now but."  
  
"Alfred press the talk button." Alfred pressed a button that he was accustomed to using on the computer.  
  
"No, I don't get as much sleep as you think."  
  
"Sure fooled me."  
  
"I guess this communicator isn't really something you got out of the cereal box, is it?"  
  
"No, it's one of the few gadgets we don't get from there."  
  
Alfred watched the young ward, as he began to make his way up the stairs. They needed the privacy.  
  
"Listen I was thinking that we could meet at the docks, again - around 9 or so?"  
  
"Well I guess I'm going to have to cancel my date wither Wonder Girl."  
  
"Oh.."  
  
"You know you just broke a crime fighting rule there?"  
  
"Which is?"  
  
"Never become that gullible."  
  
"You bastard."  
  
"I've found a few things that are interesting with the boats. I guess I'll tell you about it later."  
  
" Sounds like a plan."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
" 


	2. part two

The fourth small rock tapped the outside window to the Gotham University Dorm. Barbara's cheek lean on her fist as she woke up, heard the noise, and looked at the clock after removing countless papers from it.  
  
Her blue eyes adjusted to the light in the room. She looked outside of the window, no one was there. It was 5:30. She was supposed to meet Dick at the Airport at four. She needed to brush her teeth before she got to the bus station, maybe even take a cab since she was running awfully late.  
  
There was a loud knock on the door. She quickly reached over and put a piece of gum in her mouth.  
  
"Hold on, I'm coming." She said as she reached to open the door only to realize that Batman's communicator and half of her Batgirl costume were laying out. In her messy room she tucked the costume in a laundry bag and threw a thong over the communicator on her night stand.  
  
She opened the door.  
  
"Grayson?" she said. "What are you doing here?"  
  
Her eyes floated over to her room mate's mirror. She looked like she just woke up. Her hair was in a bun, with her glasses scattered in there. She wore a black tank top that had revealed more cleavage than her nervously blushing freckles knew and her pajama pants were sagging. Dick was wearing a classic sweater vest with a polo underneath and khakis.  
  
"Well when you leave me hanging at the airport, I tend to stop by un announced. This might very well be the first time a girl has ever stood up."  
  
She pulled the joking boy into the room.  
  
"This is a GIRLS ONLY dorm." She whispered trying to keep a somewhat serious, somewhat intrigued tone. "How did you get in?"  
  
"One of the girls in my ECON class from last semester let me in. Told her I'd give her a call. Too bad I don't really know her name."  
  
"Oh." she said as he took a seat on her room mates bed. While she kept on letting the reflection in the mirror become the judge of her. "I'm sorry. If you couldn't tell I fell asleep."  
  
"I tried calling but your line was busy."  
  
"Really?" she said looking for the phone. "My room mate took it to Jenny's across the hall. She practically lives there these days with that whole soriety sister commitment."  
  
"No big deal. I probably should have offered to have driven you in there in the first place. It was on the way and all."  
  
"Don't worry about it Grayson."  
  
"So Babs, is that what you're wearing." He said trying to pull off some charm with his one eye brow bit.  
  
"Well I might just throw a t-shirt over this. I wear my pajama pants all the time."  
  
"Even to dates?" he said.  
  
Barbara paused. She remembered lying to Dick about having a date after the airport investigation. She only had one good summer dress in the closet, most of the clothes she had were GCPD apparel or mature clothes that she took to the library.  
  
"You're going to have to go now. I'll meet you down stairs. It'll only take a minute to get ready, k?" she said as Dick got up and grabbed his arm taking him to the door.  
  
"Alright, no problem," he said as she opened the door only to see the Resident Director outside. She slammed the door.  
  
"I'm going to have to call my date and tell him that I have to change when I get back. Let's get going."  
  
"What phone are you going to call him on?" he said pointing to the missing phone.  
  
"Uh." she urged out, tangled up in her lies. "Do you have a cell phone?"  
  
"No, I left it in the car."  
  
"Listen Grayson, I'm going to have to trust you here. I know THIS is just something you've been dying to happen but you're going to have to ignore it." She picked up a pillow and gave it to him.  
  
"Stuff your head in the pillow!" she said rolling her hands through his hair before pushing it hard into the cotton filled cushion.  
  
"What's all of this about?" he said as he heard Babs take off her top and throw it to the ground.  
  
"I'm changing, Grayson. That's what."  
  
"What makes you think I would even think about looking?" he laughed.  
  
She starred at the mirror, making sure that he didn't move a centimeter from that pillow while looking at herself in the light. She knew Dick was joking although unknowing of what he really would have done if she had done something like this without stuffing his face in the pillow.  
  
She pulled down her pajama pants and kicked them to the side of the room. When she suddenly heard another knock on the door.  
  
"Hey Babsy, it's me Sally. C'mon let me in. I forget my keys."  
  
Barbara rushed over to Dick pulling his one had up with both arms. He dropped the pillow.  
  
"Oh my god, he dropped the pillow." She thought quickly. "His eyes dropped down. Oh my god, his eyes dropped down. He saw my chest. He didn't mean to. Right? Right. He's nervous. He's embarrassed. God why did I lie? He's going to get kicked out of school if I don't hide him." She pulled the pillow up covering her chest.  
  
"My room mate is here. You HAVE to hide?" she whispered as softly as possible yet trying to get the point across.  
  
"Under your bed," he whispered.  
  
"Yes, under my be." she remembered what was under the bed. "No. in my closet."  
  
She said quickly dropping him from his crouching position closing his mouth with one hand and throwing him into the small closet with the other. She picked up the summer dress and pulled it on quickly before she took a deep breath and opened the door, and acted girly.  
  
"Hey Sally, sorry. I was just changing."  
  
"No, big deal Babsie. I have to get my keys and photo album before I go out for pizza with the girls. It will only be a minute and then I'll let you be."  
  
She saw her friend rustle around her equally messy side of the room. Barbara tapped her bare feet on the floor, occasionally looking at the door. Her room mate looked confused and astonished at the same time.  
  
"You look nice. What's the occasion?" her room mate said.  
  
"Oh, I have a date." She said biting her lip.  
  
"Well pull down your hair," her roommate said unwrapping the bun and letting it gently fall down to her shoulders. "And take away those dorky glasses." She said removing them from her hair.  
  
"Gol, I wish that was all I needed to do to get ready for a date. You look amazing." Her room mate, who often kept a distance from the complete opposite Barbara said in a caring way.  
  
"Er, thanks? You think I look ok?" She smiled inside, even though she knew that she was just going out with Dick and the date was a lie.  
  
"Oh yeah. You're a complete knock out. The lucky guy wouldn't be Dick Grayson, would it?" her room mate smiled.  
  
Barbara looked at the closet knowing that her couldn't see her flush.  
  
"No Dick and I are just friends."  
  
"Please, I gave up on trying to get his attention after I got tired of you making that jealous face. The only guy I ever hear you talk about is him. We all know that you like him. Every ex-girlfriend he's had you have something bad to say about and it's not like he's dating bad girls. You even said that that's why you go to all of those boring Charity Balls." Her room mate said mocking her voice. "I wouldn't go if Dick wasn't there with me. We have such an amazing time together. I wish I could find more guys like that. Wait no I don't I want to have a million of his babies"  
  
"Um. take a nap with that gossip that you girls dream about." She giggled along with her room mate and then kept her composure. "Dick and I are just friends."  
  
"SURE. Then who DO you write about in that secret diary of yours?"  
  
"Don't you have to be someplace?"  
  
"Listen, Babs. You two are flirting whenever you are together. It took us awhile to figure out why he was always telling us he was busy, but we figured it out. You know why he doesn't give call backs?"  
  
"What are you talking about. why?" Barbara said looking at the defenseless closet.  
  
"BECAUSE HE IS HOLDING OUT FOR YOU. His friends even say that."  
  
"Well.I don't think that is.so."  
  
"I guess, tell Dickie I said hi." She laughed as she walked out the door.  
  
Barbara looked at herself in the summer dress, and rolled two fingers through her red hair. She wandered what would happen with her friendship after all of this madness that had just taken place. Taking a deep breath she opened the door.  
  
They paused. He looked surprised. He was checking her out. Before he began to move his lips to say "wow" she interrupted him.  
  
"Now I can see why you never called her back." He gave her an awkward look. " She is a complete ditz."  
  
The stressed out Barbara paced around the floor acting like he was looking for something while Dick sat on her bed, trying to keep it cool so she wouldn't realize that he was in deep thought.  
  
"You know her flight is coming in at seven?" he said as she stopped. "Let's see the work you got done and I'll show you what I have once we get in the car."  
  
She stopped pacing. Her comfort level began to steady back to normal as she reached under her laptop and grabbed a thick tan folder and handed it to him on her bed.  
  
"Wow. These are" he looked up to see that she was staring at him without much concern about the project. "uh.amazing. You have the actual notes and give a paragraph of personal analysis on each page. Who'd you pay at the department to get this done?" he laughed.  
  
"I didn't PAY anyone. This is why I fell asleep and didn't show up." She said taking the folder back and heard the resident advisor walk down the stairs. "We better get going."  
  
"Yeah." He said.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Flight 152 to Metropolis is now on it's final call. Flight 152 is now on it's final boarding call." The announced said as Barbara and Dick split French fries while sitting in the fake leather lounge seats at the Gotham International Airport.  
  
"It's almost seven." She said looking at Dick's watch.  
  
"Yeah. It looks like Bullock and Montoya have checked everyone hand and foot that has come near the area."  
  
"Maybe she has an inside source that they're on to her."  
  
"Maybe she has something up her sleeve." He said taking a sip of his drink through his straw.  
  
"I can't believe Bruce actually dated her." She said leaning over him while searching for the longest fries.  
  
" Bruce has an interesting idea of a lifestyle," Dick mumbled as she munched away.  
  
"What's it like?" she said softly as she swallowed.  
  
"What's what like?" he said as he looked at the small editoral of the paper left on the floor. It was the old man Doyle Douglas talking about Batman again.  
  
"What's it like living with Bruce Wayne?" she said stealing a few more fries.  
  
"Life with Bruce Wayne is a life where you're constantly asked 'What is it like living with Bruce Wayne'" he said trying to make a joke out of it but only frowning.  
  
" I'm sorry Dick, you and I always seem to be talking about other things. I often forget that you are who everyone sees you as."  
  
"No. It's okay." He said. His eyes weren't scanning the floor any more.  
  
"Bruce is mostly concerned with business." She looked disappointed. "But only because he knows that if it wasn't for him a lot of people would have harder lives. He puts it all on him to change everything. Social events are the only times he really gets away from our place. He likes small talk - I've always been about the opposite."  
  
"Dad is the same way. I know.he wants to spend time with me, but he knows that if he wants to go to a gymnastics competition there might be 1 or 2 murders that won't be solved. Guess I've grown up really independent because of it, but on the other hand I have all of his morals and beliefs inside of me."  
  
"Some night, when I'm working for him or with him. I get so carried away that when I take a moment to focus and reflect I realize that I'm becoming him. Alfred told me that I need to focus on what I want before this crazy lifestyle determines my future."  
  
"He's right." She said as the two became laid back, shoulder to shoulder amongst the empty mile of open seats. "You ever have the urge to do something that you wanted to do but you're so caught up with what's going on in your life that you don't realize that that opportunity might be gone?"  
  
"What are you two doing here?" Bullock said as he began to cough.  
  
"Just here to..uh.talk?" Barbara said as she was noticeably trying to hide irritation.  
  
"You talk at an airport?" Harvey said scratching his neck.  
  
"Yeah, well we can't really get any privacy elsewhere. You know? Airports are always filled with tourists. People who don't know the secrets we hide?"  
  
"And what kinda secrets would those be, kid?"  
  
"Well. I guess I shouldn't be telling you this. But, we're trying to find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop."  
  
Barbara tried not to laugh as Harvey walked away to his partner shaking their head. The plane Selina Kyle was supposed to take had left. Everyone was searched for IDs.  
  
"I was hoping we could have had a case solved by today," Barbara said as she took out the last of the small fried at the bottom.  
  
"Yeah, I was starting to get tired of the time we spend together." He laughed.  
  
"You're so right, Grayson." She laughed. "I must say that I do feel the same way, too."  
  
He smiled right in her face and grabbed her wrist. "Well, what are you going to do about it?"  
  
She became excited and afraid at the same time. She couldn't look into those blue eyes, they were too powerful.  
  
"Probably go home." She sighed as he loosened his grip. " I have to meet him soon."  
  
"Dang," he looked at his watch, "I guess I wasn't keeping track of time. I'll take you back to your dorm. I should be back to work anyways. Have some major duty stuff to pull of when Bruce is gone."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Dick's hands were in his pockets as he walked Barbara to her dorm room.  
  
"So I guess I'll see you in class," she said waving her hand through her hair.  
  
"Well only if you don't make it too long of a night with your date," he said.  
  
She bit her lip. " Dick, about everything that happened when my room  
  
mate came in."  
  
"I know what she was saying was true, Babs."  
  
She paused. She didn't know what to do, he looked so confident in the dark.  
  
"You.you.do? Cause."  
  
"Yeah, you are a knockout" he winked at her. "Have fun on your date." He said as he kissed her on the side of the cheek and left.  
  
"Well. uh.thanks grayson." She mumbled as she saw him walk away.  
  
"See it's just one thing that I'm sure she got wrong and it's been on my mind for awhile. To think that she thinks." he stopped he bold march on the sidewalk.  
  
"Yeah, Dick?"  
  
"She thinks that those glasses are dorky. It's just insane."  
  
"Go home Grayson. You've had enough stories today." She smiled as she walked into the door of her dorm. Closed the door. And leaned back on it and looked into the sky as she let the moment go. 


	3. part three

Batgirl stood on the side of the docks, looking at the Gotham Clock Tower on the other side of town through her binoculars.  
  
"9:15" she mumbled. "If he doesn't have a good excuse I'm going to."  
  
"Going to what?" she saw his reflection.  
  
"Going to find a new partner. I hear that Aquaman is looking for a sidekick."  
  
"Go for it. But try getting the seaweed out of your hair each night. It's just as hard as getting that smell out of your suit." He smiled as he somehow pulled a folder away from behind his cape.  
  
"I hope you're good at Research papers." She peering her face over his shoulder to look at the few pages of information in the folder.  
  
"Well I just pay someone off to do it for me, usually."  
  
"Har, Har. We have five boats. Five leads."  
  
"Two leads."  
  
"Two?"  
  
"Two of those boats headed to Metropolis, I had a friend of ours check it out. No men in spandex were on those boats but he did find a bunch of old salmon."  
  
" More than I need to know. One of these left for Venezuela. Plan on using your passport soon?"  
  
"Well even though we deserve a vacation but that lead bit the dust too."  
  
"How so? That was one of Catwoman's hiding spots after she was falsely convicted by Thorne."  
  
"Well first off the boat was linked to Thorne. She might have changed, but I doubt she would be in this with him. Second off, the Gotham Patrol picked that boat off for a drug bust it. It hasn't moved."  
  
"Well I guess that ruins the fun out of finding a bat in a haystack."  
  
"Not really. If we don't find Batman soon there's going to be a surge of criminal activity. He's never been away from the city for this long. They may be crazy but they aren't stupid."  
  
"If we don't find him, Robin."  
  
He looked into her blue eyes.  
  
"I'm with you through all of it."  
  
There was a long pause, he looked away- something was on his mind.  
  
"Thanks but -"  
  
"It's my decision. It has been something that I wasn't sure of for a long time, but after working with you I just know that it's become part of my destiny."  
  
"You do realize that it's not always fun. Every time you put that mask on you give up the night at the movies to relax, the friends who need to call you in the middle of the night, just to spend a few hours smelling gunsmoke hoping that that isn't the last thing you breathe in, hoping that that isn't the last thing that your partner - the innocent bystander ever breathes."  
  
"I know but sometimes I just don't know who I am until I do that. When I'm shopping or spending time studying I just want to suit up there and do this with you.guys."  
  
"What if I wasn't there. what if he wasn't there either? If it was just you, would you do it?" he said as he became agitated.  
  
"I. I .."  
  
"Don't know if you could?" he said. "Now you know what I'm going through. What if something happened to me? Could you do this every night by yourself. There's a time when you have to decide if you're obligated to the people you've never met every night or if you just want to do this to secure an urge .Because it's about them first."  
  
"Listen, I know I haven't seen what you have seen. If I had to.do it alone.I would. Maybe I couldn't do it as well as you, but for them I would give it all."  
  
"That's what I'm worried about."  
  
"What?"  
  
"This partnership."  
  
"I can't believe you. We've been together for how many nights and you still don't think I can cut it."  
  
She began to walk away as he grabbed her wrist, she tugged back her arm as hard as hard as she tugged back the tears.  
  
"It's not that. When the, If the time comes. Would you let me die if that was the only option?."  
  
She stopped tugging at his loosening grasp and the two stared in the silence.  
  
"Would you let me die, if that was the only option?"  
  
"I. I'm not like him. I can put my life down for the mission any time, but I'm not ready to sacrifice you.anyone that I care about for this. I couldn't on if go if I let you."  
  
She hugged him, and let one of the many tears leak out of her closed eye. He smelled her hair, it was incomparable to anything he had ever encountered amongst the hundreds of his adventures.  
  
"Let's have this talk after we find him. Okay?"  
  
They broke the hug.  
  
"There are two boats to check. You have a curfew?"  
  
"Where are they?"  
  
"Star City."  
  
"You could have notified me in advance. I would have gotten dressed up."  
  
He picked a remote control from his belt and pressed down on it. The Batboat floated up amongst a swarm of bubbles to the side of the dock. As the cockpit opened Batgirl began to make her way to the passenger side.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?' Robin questioned.  
  
"I thought we.."  
  
"Oh, well I thought you were going to swim since you're trying out for Aqua man's opening. Hope you can hold your breath."  
  
"Well I thought I would just go with you since I didn't want to beat you there. Slow driver."  
  
"Yeah, well it's a force of habit after hearing 'this thing costs 20.5 million dollars and I don't want to pay for a new one' every time you're with him."  
  
"Understandable."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"You know I still can't believe that after you spend all of the money on this thing you still don't have a TV, CD player, or even a FM radio?"  
  
"Yeah, but you have to like the bullet proof leather heated seats." He said.  
  
"How do you two kill time on your road trips?"  
  
"It usually involves me making fun of him while he's in one of those deep though moments."  
  
"Are you two actually friends?"  
  
"Uh. yeah, I guess."  
  
"Sorry, it's none of my."  
  
"Business? It's okay cause he's all business. I keep on wandering what he was like when he did this stuff at our age."  
  
"So what about down there? When you aren't doing this stuff. What do you talk about?"  
  
"This one time, when we went to Metropolis, we talked about errr.girls."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah, well there was this Princess named Talia but she was the daughter of this really wicked guy named."  
  
"Ghul."  
  
"You know the story."  
  
"Supergirl and I tell each other about everything."  
  
"Everything?" he said pointed to his mask.  
  
"Think she would tell even if I bothered to take the simple way out of the mystery?"  
  
"Guess not."  
  
"How many people know?"  
  
"Five. How about you?"  
  
"One."  
  
"Whose that?"  
  
"Me."  
  
"Guess it's not the easiest secret to keep but it's also not the easiest to explain."  
  
"No one relevant to tell in my life. I have an old friend but I'm afraid it'd really mess everything up between us if he knew. It's nothing you can just say over coffee."  
  
"Yeah, it'd be nice to give a real explanation behind the black eye."  
  
"Or telling your friends what kind of cat claws scratched your arm."  
  
"Is it true that he and Catwoman were together?"  
  
"Why I thought Supergirl told you everything?"  
  
"C'mon. Did he? It is relevant to the case."  
  
"Well hate to be the one to break it to you but yes, they did."  
  
"So she knows his."  
  
"No."  
  
"What about Poison Ivy and Talia?"  
  
"Poison Ivy and Batman never had anything so no but Talia did have something with him, something serious. She knew who he was from the beginning and liked him because of that. I guess that's why he liked her so much, he never had to worry about telling her."  
  
"Aww."  
  
"Now that's definitely breaking a crime fighting rule but I won't punish you."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"It must be hard for him, to always find the right girl only to find out that she's wrong."  
  
" Oh yeah, he has it so hard. He's been getting the girl ever since I put on this costume. You never see him waiting around for a few minutes so some girl can just give him puppy eyes and flirt with him. Or have to explain the story to Gordon while he gets the big kiss from the girl he saved."  
  
"You know you make a pretty good whiner."  
  
"I guess I'll have to wait until I get my day when I get to kiss the girl. I mean, what is it? The costume?"  
  
"You look fine. Some girls are just into the name."  
  
"Yeah, I could tell that from your taste in costume."  
  
"Ouch, low blow to the person whose trying to cheer you up."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"It's okay, Robin. You'll get the girl one day - maybe it will be on the cover of the tabloid. If it makes you feel any better I know of..err..someone who has a major crush on you."  
  
"Who..who is that?"  
  
"Mary Marvel."  
  
"Huh.."  
  
"Straight from the words of Supergirl."  
  
"Well it's nice to see that fourteen year olds are interested in me."  
  
" Calm down, Boy Wonder. I have yet to find a decent guy throw his interest in my direction."  
  
"I guess I always knew that you had feelings for .him. That's why you're so interested in his whole dating scheme. That's why you found out about Talia."  
  
"You don't"  
  
"Understand? He's the guy in charge, he's the hero, he's the one that gets the girl."  
  
"You get you're name because you're a bird brain, don't you?"  
  
"What."  
  
"You could get your Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Talia, or any slutty girl you wanted if you would just make a move on them. Just.Show them. that they're more than a girl to you, and they're all yours."  
  
His hand roamed over hers, she had broken a superhero rule - she told too much, then she saw his crawl past hers to the button by the blinking light.  
  
"Ehem. Robin and Batgirl here."  
  
"It's Gordon, Robin." The commissioner said in a noisey background.  
  
" Is everything okay, Commissioner?" Batgirl interluded.  
  
"I was going to ask you the same thing, Batgirl. We turned on the signal when Two-Face robbed the bank tonight."  
  
"Is everything settled, sir?" Robin asked.  
  
"Two office are down, but we were able to control the situation. I'm taking it that your boss still isn't back, huh son?"  
  
" No commissioner. Like us, he's on an out of town mission." Batgirl said, biting her lip.  
  
" Well, I wish all of you a safe and quick trip. We're missing you here."  
  
"Thank you Commissioner. Is there any new information on the Catwoman case?"  
  
"Montoya and Bullock are working on two leads about her where about."  
  
"Tell me when you find anything more. I." Robin looked at the redhead. " We should be back tomorrow night."  
  
" Will do, Robin. Take care."  
  
The communicator clicked off.  
  
"Robin.." she looked down at her feet.  
  
"We're here." He said grimly.  
  
The boat submerged from the water beside a large freight ship.  
  
"Robin. If anything should happen."  
  
"I get your stereo." He smiled.  
  
"Sure know how to make a moment, Teen Titan."  
  
"Yeah, yeah." He said shooting his grapple onto the top of the ship. She did the same. They sailed through the air in unison.  
  
When they reached the top she saw him reach for something behind his belt.  
  
"Consider it an early birthday present." He said handing her a mask identical to his.  
  
"Oh wow, it's everything I ever wanted."  
  
"Put it under your mask, it has night vision."  
  
"Oh."  
  
She turned her back to him and - without hesitating - pulled down her cowl as he watched her silky red hair stream down. Her arms reached up and put on the mask.  
  
"Wow, this sure beats bringing a flash light."  
  
"Yeah, you never have to carry extra batteries in the bat belt."  
  
"So now that I can see. what are we looking for."  
  
"Anything out of the ordinary."  
  
"We're two people that spend their weekends dressed up as a bird and a bat and we're supposed to be looking for something out of the ordinary?"  
  
" You know what I mean."  
  
"Do you guys have any enemies in Star City?"  
  
"Not any major ones, but after a few hundred nights on the job you lose track of how many you have. Br-Batman always said that in the end it probably won't be the Joker, the Penguin, or any of the villains that make headlines and urban legends. It'll be the punk with the lucky shot. The one who planned it out secretly, or was just at the right place at the right time - got him by surprise."  
  
" Why won't it be one of his great enemies?"  
  
"Because to all of the mental cases. it's just a game. They kill him - the game is over. They're addicted; he's their only reason for living. They don't really hate him - they don't really even want to kill him but out there- there are some people who don't seem him as a game - they see him just like they see the people he tries to stop. They hide alone coming up with the perfect plan. "  
  
"You sound like you've seen this before."  
  
"An old henchman for Thorne was caught by us a few years ago a few days before he was supposed to put a hit on Gordon. He went to jail. Thorne sent some of his men to his house, to retrieve the papers that had his assignment. They got them."  
  
"And so he blames Batman."  
  
"That's not the whole story. When they were walking out, they heard his kid and wife cough in the closet."  
  
"Oh my god."  
  
"Thorne was afraid that if they knew what was inside of the folder they could testify against them. Once he got out of prison, though. He didn't take it out on Thorne. He said that if Batman never caught him it would never have happened. He didn't understand how Batman could save Gordon from death but not his family."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"He found out that the Riddler was setting up a trap - and did what we would have done in solving the crime. We. We went to Gotham Park to pick up a clue, and there was a homeless man walking down the sidewalk. We were so.so busy trying to get that riddle that we didn't see him take out the sniper rifle."  
  
Robin stopped walking.  
  
"I heard the shot right after I saw it go through his arm. Then he shot him in the legs and the arm again. He was torturing him instead of going straight for the kill. By the time I realized what was happening he shot him 6 times. I got him with my bola when he was reloading."  
  
"You found out his story when you caught him?"  
  
"No. Batman couldn't come back for a few weeks. He thought he had killed him. We found it in his suicide letter."  
  
"I can see why he takes this so seriously."  
  
"It's just one of many reasons."  
  
"Do you think Mr. X is like that guy? Someone out for revenge?"  
  
"The one thing I've learned about my after school adventures it's that anything is possible."  
  
" Then what about Catwoman? If it's a game to her, why would she be part of it?"  
  
"She'll always be shady, you should know that. She's also been in this for herself since the beginning. Batman's always tried to get her to join his side, maybe she's doing this because it's her turn to try and convert her."  
  
"She should know better than that. Then again - we say that every time she puts on her costume."  
  
"I could never tell if she was really good inside."  
  
"What would have happened if she would have joined your side?"  
  
"I guess it was always a pipe dream. She's had good intentions, even gotten us out of near death situations - but in the end the greed gets the best of her. She couldn't stay good for that long, even if she had him. It's like one of those animals that you get from the wild - it's nice to have at home but you have to let it run free."  
  
"Would he ever give it up for her? For anyone?"  
  
" Sometimes I wander if he's already given it up. He gave his life to the city, that's why he's had the problems that he has. Being with a woman, is like cheating."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The two gumshoes checked every inch of the large freight boat over and over until they could barely keep their eyes open  
  
"One down, one to go?" Batgirl said with her dopey eyes.  
  
"You need sleep."  
  
"Yeah, but we can't go home. We need to find him."  
  
Robin yawned. "Well.. why don't we take a power nap in the boat."  
  
"I never figured this would be the way you'd proposition to sleep with me, Robin."  
  
"You can't expect greater words at this time of the ni- morning."  
  
The two landed into the cockpit of the boat. Batgirl and Robin sat down, trying to make each other comfortable while sitting upright.  
  
"You have heat seeking missiles yet these seats don't recline?"  
  
"Sorry, we got the last model on the floor."  
  
"Okay, well how about you lean on that end and I lean on this one." She moved around so their faces were as far away from each other as possible. Their interlocking legs were the only things that were touching.  
  
Robin cringed. "This is comftrable."  
  
"How are we going to wake up?"  
  
"I've been trained to wake myself up after so much sleep. Incase I was ever in a hostage situation."  
  
"Just an hour, then we start looking."  
  
They closed their eyes as the boat sunk under the water.  
  
"Just an hour," he whispered.  
  
Through out the dreams, the two moved away from their proposed positions. He wrapped his arm around her. She held it there. She laid her head in his sturdy chest. He was entrapped by the smell of her hair - hair only inches away from his face though never a mile away from his soul. 


	4. part four

Batgirl and the butterflies in her stomach that awakened with her watched Robin babble the lyrics to old children's cereal commercials in his sleep. As she slowly lifted herself away from their unusually tight bond the blurry digital clock in the bumpy boat became clear.  
  
"Robin!" she said shoving him.  
  
"Chocolately, Marshmellowly delight with those little elves"  
  
"Robin get up! It's 7:30 in the morning!"  
  
His eyes opened. "Wha?"  
  
"I thought you were trained to wake up within an hour!?" she panicked.  
  
"Okay. Well I guess I forgot it since I've never used it. Give me a good five more minutes and we'll be out," He said as he turned his head away from her and rolled his arm around her even more.  
  
"Robin! Your little crime fighting gig is to keep people out of trouble and if I don't get to Gotham soon I'm doomed."  
  
"Ok," he said, obviously not comprehending what she was saying.  
  
"This thing is voice activated right?" she said rubbing his arms.  
  
"Ok."  
  
"Robin just tell me what you need to say to this thing to get us back in Gotham." She said scratching her gloved hand through his morning hair.  
  
"Ughmm. Computerrr.set a coarse to Gotham. Full Speed."  
  
"Thankyou," but before she could say the words the boat was already cruising through the water. "He definitely turns the 'early bird' phrase into an irony."  
  
She laid back down beside him, but keeping her head and eyes away from him. The new crime fighter needed to concentrate on what needed to be done when she got back because she couldn't look at him for the simple fact that she needed to have a grudge against him for creating their newest situation.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Remind me to crash this thing so we can get one of the new ones that comes with a coffee maker." He surprised her with the fact that he was up.  
  
"Well I guess I could get you a glass of water from out there. Bet you that it'd wake you up more than any kind of coffee." Batgirl said as she pointed out the water they were riding on to her now awakened associate.  
  
"Yeah well Batman has been cracking down on me to drink more of it. Says it'll give me my daily required dose of contamination and toxic waste."  
  
"It's really too bad there isn't a drive through around here. I could use some breakfast."  
  
"I'd invite you over to the cave but it's just looking like a mess right now. With Batman gone there's no one to clean or cook."  
  
"Awww. Pawr Rawbin. Maybe if you're good I'll cook dinner for you, someday."  
  
"Yeah, what kind of food do you think I like?"  
  
"Hmmm. My guess is that you're probably the person who'll eat anything that can be cooked in a microwave for over 2 minutes thus you'd love my cooking."  
  
"Wow you got that one right. IS there anything you can't do?"  
  
"Can't cross my eyes."  
  
Robin got close to Batgirls face, and then his eyes went crazy flickering in all different directions. Batgirl smiled and giggled. "Eww. Gross."  
  
"You should have seen the trouble I got in when I put on his suit in the cave and did that."  
  
"Why did you get in trouble? Is he that strict?"  
  
"Well I just happened to take pictures of me doing that and sent them to the entire Justice League for their Christmas cards."  
  
Batgirl rolled over laughing, imagining their individual reactions when they opened up their mail.  
  
"Robin you're probably the most interesting person I've met."  
  
"After all of the mentally insane mastermind criminals we've taken down together, I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not."  
  
"Well you should."  
  
"Well, thanks."  
  
"You think that we'll ever find some moment in time where we could just hang out?"  
  
"You mean us, minus the masks?"  
  
"Yeah, but if you dare think I mean minus anything more - Well you know how hard I can throw a sucker punch."  
  
"Well I guess I could use a free meal."  
  
"Free? I said that I would cook you dinner sometime but I don't remember that it would be free."  
  
"Good point. Your cooking would probably be as bad as the person it is fixed by so you should probably pay me to eat it."  
  
Batgirl stuck out her tongue as she gave him her famous Cheshire grin. Gently Robin slapped it, but for a quick second his gloved hand massaged her face.  
  
  
  
The computers voice began "Entering Gotham City."  
  
"Uh.where do you need to be dropped off?"  
  
"Umm." she looked at the clock and then the position of the boat in contrast to Gotham City on the small computer screen.  
  
"Well you could just tell me where you live, you know?" he raised an eyebrow.  
  
"No. I don't want to do it that way." she said coarsely.  
  
She looked at him and then there was an awkward silence. Batgirl took a deep breath and began to take off her thin mask in front of him.  
  
"No. No. Seriously, you don't have to" he said reaching an arm out to try and stop her before she lifted the hair away from her face. When the hair was removed a look of disbelief and stupidity arose on Robin's face. The mask he had given her for night vision purposes was still stuck on her face.  
  
"Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. I wanted to get you on that before the night ended." She laughed.  
  
"Well it's funny because I was going to ask for that back right now."  
  
"Haha, I don't think so. I just wanted to see how smart you have to be to get a super hero degree. Obviously not that smart."  
  
"Huh?" Robin said with a jaw to the side, open mouth pause.  
  
"Well right now you just broke a rule."  
  
"And what exactly would that be?" he interrogated.  
  
"Never become that gullible." She smiled as she put her mask back on.  
  
"Okay well I guess I'll be dropping you off here then. Aqua Girl definitely has a nice ring to it." He said, trying to hide his agitation and embarrassment with humor.  
  
"Think Batman is okay, Robin?" she said.  
  
"Um. yeah.he's the greatest human born - non mutant that ever touched foot in the country. Of coarse he is okay." He said trying to cheer her up.  
  
"I'm not so sure about that."  
  
"Well if only I didn't have that ability to read the minds of armadillos then I would be a shoe in for that title."  
  
"I just can't help but think that we're not working hard enough to find him."  
  
"We once saved two twin girls from the Mad Hatter. They let their eyes and not the media make out who their hero was because of their young age. Well they got Commissioner Gordon to get me to talk to them before they went back home to their family. It was the first time I was asked to be thanked by one of the people."  
  
"So you don't get the girl at the end of the day, you get the girls" Batgirl had to rub in.  
  
"Well yeah but all they did was ask me about how exciting this job is but in all honestly it's boring for about 99% of the time. We have to wait patiently for the leads to come because usually there aren't any to follow. There's always those moments where you feel hopeless and completely unable to help the people you're meant to protect and the worst part of it all is that you're in complete silence. So I guess best thing you can do is find someone to talk to about it. We'll find him, I promise."  
  
"I just don't know if I could handle being kidnapped for that long," her costume felt heavier than it usually did.  
  
"You won't get kidnapped. I'll assure you that."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah. You might not be a pro but if we're together I don't think that anyone could get you without getting me first."  
  
"The night he was err taken. You went to the bank and he went to the museum. Did it feel weird at all?"  
  
"When?"  
  
"Well you two always seem to be working together. Is it different when you go solo? Is that what you would have done?"  
  
"I don't make the rules. I've tried not listening to that but he knows the game better than I do. When you break them you end up in the Cave's hospital bed watching cartoons and eating JELLO."  
  
"Hey, I like cartoons and JELLO. Maybe it isn't as bad down there as you make it out to be."  
  
"Thing is, that even when you go by the rules it doesn't mean that you'll be safe and dandy. He's been kidnapped three or four times but never for this long. Every night I keep on having this feeling that we'll just find him and that everything will be okay. That's how he told me I should be. If you haven't found out by now, I'm usually the damsel in distress. Remember Talia."  
  
"Ghul's daughter."  
  
"Yeah, well he kidnapped me for a week. He found out my secret identity and took care of me when I was leading my ordinary life. It wasn't the greatest experience, on the fourth night I gave up hope. I just hope he never has to go through that. I just hope you never have to go through that."  
  
"I can't believe how well you've taken this. So. So well."  
  
"Well I just sorta found things that took my mind off of it."  
  
"Take me to the dock closest to Gotham train station. That's probably the best place for me to go."  
  
Robin tried hiding an untouched emotion with his face, but couldn't hide it from her.  
  
"What?" she said curiously.  
  
"Nothing. It's just I didn't figure that you lived in that area. Always saw you living in some outside suburb."  
  
"Err.heh. I don't live there, not that I'm going to give you clues as to who I am. Since I don't want anyone to know about that, I keep bags of old clothes in garbage bags on the top of roofs."  
  
"How do you know that someone won't get a free show?" he winked at her, even though most of him was concerned.  
  
"There's an abandoned pigeon shack with a trap door around that area." She said, partially biting her lip and worrying if she revealed too much.  
  
"Good call," Robin said trying to forget that information. "But since it's so early, Batman and I both keep an extra change of clothes in the back of here for moments like these. They're just sweatpants and they'd be little baggy on you but."  
  
"Yeah, I just leave sweats up on the roof tops. I figure that if someone finds them they won't bother to take them."  
  
The boat began to stop by the dock and the canopy opened. Batgirl began to start humming, "Here comes the sun, dum dum dum dum."  
  
"It's weird cause you should be at the batcave and I should be at the bird house but oh well."  
  
"Heh, you know I might give you a ring on the communicater. I usually..err..work during the week but this is a little more serious than a bank robbery,"  
  
"Tell me about it. I might have to give up a few modeling shoots to get this case solved."  
  
"Oh yeah? The ones for Children's Clothes. I hear there's good money in that." She smiled and then frowned.  
  
"If you can't come you don't have to. I know how to work alone."  
  
"I might do that." Sarcasm was filled in the air as she got out of the boat and began to walk down the dock she looked back at the semi-greasy haired vigilante.  
  
  
  
" Hey Batgirl you ever wander."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"If you and I have been on these streets and passed each other?"  
  
"Yeah I think about it all the time. I wander what you look like with out the mask. If you er or him saw me on the streets. Would we know? Would we be the type that would hang out with each other or would we just not get along cause we were clueless." She said.  
  
"Yeah ever since I met you I guess I got this weird deja vue feeling about you. I think you.well we both hide a lot about ourselves from each other. But what ever we're hiding it just seems like it's familiar ground."  
  
"Robin, Now I'm going to do something that I'm not sure if I want to do. My heart says one thing and the rest of me is just, confused. I just feel like I have to even though the outcome might not come out that well."  
  
"I don't want to hold you from anything."  
  
"Well I guess there's no other way to say this so here it goes. I have to call Aqua man and break it to him that I'm not longer interested in being his partner. I guess he pays well but you just have the better good insurance policy."  
  
"Well I haven't officially given you the job. I plan on looking at other applicants in the future. What do you have that Supergirl can't offer?" Robin grinned.  
  
"I can keep a secret, unlike Supergirl."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" he said trying to act naïve hoping that she didn't know about the slumber party of confessions he shared with Supergirl a few months ago.  
  
"You know. Later Robi.Partner."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Rushing down the corridors of the McHenry building Dick Grayson tried to walk slyly into the lecture hall when he got in he saw his Professor as well as the class snicker at him.  
  
"Ah Mr. Grayson, what a coincidence. I was just beginning to give your research partner a lecture about her tardiness." Professor Angler said lightly.  
  
Barbara looked at Dick with uneasy eyes. She wasn't known to be late to class and neither was he. For all he knew this was the first time either of them have been chewed out by a professor.  
  
"However the purpose of solving a crime, students, is to get the job taken care of and resolving the problems later. So I will need to see the two of you after class."  
  
Barbara and Dick took their assigned seats together. They both were wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts for the Gotham Knights, neither bothered to comb their hair.  
  
"I uh, forgot my books and everything. Had a busy night."  
  
"Yeah? Guess you and your date just talked forever." Dick said as he opened his backpack to take out his laptop.  
  
"Not exactly." She mumbled and then realized that he could have taken it out of context. "I mean we talked and that's about it."  
  
The middle aged true crime novelist who taught their class bent over to whisper to his students.  
  
"So what are your excuses for being twenty minutes late."  
  
"Traffic." They said in unison. The old professor began to laugh.  
  
"I didn't get to grade your papers that you turned in last Tuesday this weekend so as a reward today is just a free day for you two to work on your project."  
  
"Thank god," Barbara smiled.  
  
"If you don't mind me asking, how is your project going?"  
  
"Not bad so far. We have good notes on everything but without the case being solved it's a lot harder to find out the true motives."  
  
"I can't believe that's stopping you from creating your own assessments. I gave this assignment to you because I believe I've failed to challenge either of you all year. I think that each of you has what it takes to be a good detective," he said.  
  
"Well the police have been hiding something from this case so we're not allowed to receive the usual access that we can get." Dick said tapping his fingers on the folder when Barbara wasn't paying attention.  
  
"The only thing I wanted to see you guys after class for is your punishment. I need two of my students to go to a dinner banquet for Raymond Rayhan. He's in Gotham to get his next book published and he'll be speaking at the banquet to make money for the school. Maybe you could talk to him about your problem and maybe he could give advice."  
  
"Um, I don't know if I can go, Mr. Angler." Dick said hoarsely  
  
"Me, neither." Barbara concurred.  
  
"You wouldn't have to be there for more than twenty minutes if you're fast. Anyways, my date is someone who might be nice enough to help you. Gotham's City Police Department's Finest. Renne Montoya."  
  
"Wouldn't everyone see it as rude if we just came in and left?" she said, trying to give him a reason to let them go.  
  
"Half of the people there will be former cops. They're used to people leaving for un-expected reasons." Their teacher pleaded.  
  
" Guess I'll get out the suit." Dick said half smiling which left Barbara unable to resist while the teacher left to answer a few questions to students across the room.  
  
"You better not forget to get me a corsage, Grayson. You do remember the first dance we went to when you were in high school?" she smiled.  
  
"Yeah, yeah. I was nervous. You were taller than me and everyone was looking at me like I was a freak."  
  
"Ha. Girls I didn't know were taking me to the bathroom asking if we were just friends because they thought you were 'the cutest guy in the whole school.' " she rolled her eyes to the nostalgia.  
  
"Well it wasn't easy being your date either. My friends were asking me how much Bruce paid you to go out with me."  
  
"Heh, dad really didn't want me wearing that dress. I can't even believe that I bought it but everyone showed me pictures of your last date and," she stopped in midsentence.  
  
"And?" Dick said.  
  
"And getting to go to the dance with you made me feel popular. I wanted to get noticed, I didn't want everyone to always think of me as the girl in the library. To be honest I didn't think you'd ask me since I never even really talked to you about it." She winced.  
  
"I wanted to take you, Babs. You're the only girl who I get to be as much as myself as possible with. Guess it's just because I've known you for so long or something." 


	5. part five

"It's almost 7:30 and you aren't even," Barbara was looking in the mirror when her father walked through the open door in her room.  
  
"Yeah, dad?" she mumbled.  
  
"It's almost seven thirty and you are already dressed like a princess to go to this event."  
  
"You think I look okay? I just hope I didn't put on too much.." Barbara often forgot that her father knew as little about cosmetics as she did. "too much blush. Oh well, it's just Dick and I."  
  
"Oh yes, just Dick Grayson who my daughter has spent the last half of her day getting ready for. This isn't the first time this has happened." He smiled as he sat down and took out the evening paper while lighting his pipe.  
  
"What can I say? Dick's a good dance partner?" she mumbled.  
  
"Dick's a good reason for you being stressed out for no good reason the last ten years of your life."  
  
"Dad, you are right. This isn't the first time this has happened." She rolled her eyes.  
  
"So are you telling me that my daughter hasn't had even a tiny crush on that boy from the circus? I do remember someone getting up early and putting on her Sunday clothes instead of a t-shirt and jeans laid out for her after she heard that she would get to see a specific acrobat. I remember sitting on your bed with you and Pookie one night in junior high, crying because a ward of Bruce Wayne's was afraid to dance with every girl - including you. I recall you saving up you allowance money for Dick's Christmas present every week since the fourth of July. The present you still haven't told me about after all of these years."  
  
"For someone who solves mysteries for a living you sure don't do well when it comes to the ones at home, Dad." She bit her lip.  
  
"All I'm saying is that I won't even forget the night you went to the dance with him. You were giddy. My Barbara wasn't giddy once through out high school and something or someone gave her a sparkle in her eyes while she was kicking her legs off the tip of her bed that night."  
  
"It was my first real dance. I had fun. So sue me." She looked closely at the mirror. "I couldn't find anyone to do my hair at the last minutes, so I guess I'll have to suffer."  
  
"Only thing that will be suffering are the boys who won't get to dance with my little girl tonight." He grimaced, trying to cover up his overprotective habit.  
  
" Dad, it's just a dinner. Dick and I probably won't dance. He's busy with something afterwards."  
  
" As promised, I will stay out of your social life. But just because the boy thinks he has to leave early doesn't mean that you have to let him." He said as he sat down and sipped his coffee while watching her frantically brush her hair.  
  
"Well I wouldn't want to get Dick in trouble. Now that Bruce is away he has a lot of work to do."  
  
"You get that feature from me and not your mother. I apologize for that" He said.  
  
" What do you mean?"  
  
"Your mother and I met when I was just the average sidewalk patrolman who worked late nights. She and her friends went out one winter, when everyone was shopping down the avenues for Christmas sales. I saw her through the stores' main windows, showing off a new Sunday dress she had tried on along with that classic smile of hers. For some reason whatever store I would be walking by on my shift, there she would be trying on a new dress - a dress I could never afford to buy for her.  
  
She and her friends would politely say hello whenever they left their store and I would shly say good evening back. Every time I would find it in me to look at her she would be making eye contact with me, I had been in a few rough situations on the streets by then but never was I so afraid when I looked at her.  
  
As I walked around the sidewalk, regretting to provoke any more conversation with her I heard a cry for help in the alley in front of me. I ran over as fast as I could and when I walked into the alley I saw no one but her.  
  
She had to laugh at my dumbfounded look. As I tried to find the will to say something to her she grabbed my trench coat and kissed me. Her friends all gathered to look down the alley to see a smudge of her lipstick on my mouth, all they did is giggle.  
  
She said she was sorry and that she had to take the trolley home with her friends before her parents would kill her.  
  
I walked around the street all night feeling sorry for myself, thinking I was part of some practical joke or a dare. I went past one of the stores she had shopped in and starred at the dress she had tried on, it was in the display window. My hand went into my coat pocket and there was a piece of stationary with her name and phone number on it, written in the same lipstick that was still planted on my face.  
  
We talked on the phone a few times. I didn't know what to say most of the time so she would entertain me by telling me stories about her job at the tailors and ask me questions about what it was like to be a police officer.  
  
For almost the entire first month she mentioned this ball in south Gotham once. I didn't think she'd see me as a good date since all of her friend's dates were members of the country club that knew how to dance to that elegant music. She never asked me until the night before when she said that we were going to ride with her friend Clyde. That's all she said.  
  
I went into the station first thing that morning and waited outside a half an hour to tell my police chief that I had to take a night off. He was frustrated at me, calling me every name in the book, and I was even upset at myself until her friend Clyde picked me up and took me to her house and I saw that cream colored silk dress that I stared at every night when I walked past the store she had shopped in. She was beautiful, Barbara, even prettier than she was on her wedding day- but I would get killed if I would ever mention that to her. All night we laughed and all of my worries of the work I would be missing just floated away. I never took a night off after that and she always said she didn't care, she got one of those nights and that's all she needed."  
  
Barbara just hugged her father tightly as the strong willed young woman had to hold back the tears.  
  
"The point is that if you want something you got to either be like your mother or have someone in the relationship to be like her. You can tell me a thousand times that you don't or can't care for Dick Grayson. You can tell me that my detective skills are weakening but Barbara your eyes give it all away when his name comes to your mind."  
  
"But dad." she let go of her father and sat on her bed tugging hard onto her teddy bear, Pookie's hand.  
  
"Even if you might be right how do I know if he likes me?"  
  
"You look away and count to five and then see if he's still looking." He smiled as the door bell rang.  
  
"I'll get it." He said picking up his coffee cup and walking to the door.  
  
Barbara tried to get back her composure by holding onto Pookie while she heard her father open the door.  
  
"Dick it's good to see you again," Commissioner Gordon said.  
  
"Same to you Commissioner. Any news on the Catwoman case? Bruce calls me every day asking me about it." Barbara's head peered out the door. She saw him wearing the suit she talked him into getting when they went shopping last semester and holding lilacs and summer blossoms corsage in one hand as the other hand 's fingers rolled against the door frame.  
  
"Not much is new as far as I'm allowed to tell. Officer's Montoya and Bullock are working awfully hard on this right now and the case should be taken care of in no time. I'm so confident that I let Montoya take the night off and go to this big gathering you and Barbara are off to tonight."  
  
"So I've heard. Speaking of women that will be attending this little gathering, have you seen Barbara lately? I heard she might need a ride."  
  
"Oh she might be interested in going. I think she's in her room right now. Feel free to fetch her if you want."  
  
Dick knew their home's layout long before he had been invited in. He always remembered Barbara coming out late at night to get a glass of water. He quickly peered his head through her doorway.  
  
"Geesh Grayson, don't you ever knock? What if I were changing?" she said before suddenly remembered the occurrence between the two of them moments before.  
  
"Babs, you look."  
  
She couldn't handle flattery, especially the kind that was only heard from Dick Grayson once every blue moon.  
  
"What's with the flowers?" she raised and eyebrow.  
  
"Don't ask. Alfred is always refusing them when I offer them to him so I guess I might as well give them to you." He blushed.  
  
"Well lilacs and summer lilies are my favorite. Alfred and I must have so much in common. Sure he is still single?" she smiled as she took the corsage and put it around her hand.  
  
"Oh, well yeah. He is an Oxford graduate, cooks, cleans, does laundry, takes out trash, and wears a tuxedo everyday." He said looking at old photographs, the one of him and her at an amusement park was framed beside her bed.  
  
"And yet somehow Bruce is the one who beats him out for man of the year?" He frowned as he noticed the poster of just Batman on her wall.  
  
"Well he and Bruce are almost even but Bruce has something that might give him an edge." he said rubbing his chin.  
  
"A few billion more dollars and good looks," she laughed.  
  
"And you told me you picked up that celebrity magazine for educational purposes last week." He faked a sigh.  
  
"Calm down Grayson. You're the one who's in my room not him." She bit her lip at the end of the comment as she realized that her hand was grasping his waist. The long pause ended as she pretended she was only brushing invisible lint from his jacket.  
  
" Yeah well I haven't been invited into this room since you started college." He said coyly.  
  
" It has been awhile, hasn't it?" she said looking at her overly organized room.  
  
"Yeah, looks like nothing has changed, though."  
  
" Remember when Bruce would let you come over here when he had one of those business things?" she began to laugh hysterically once she saw the upset expression on Dick's face.  
  
"I thought we agreed to never mention the tea parties again." He said rolling his eyes.  
  
"C'mon, you have to admit that after the fourth or fifth time you were truly starting to enjoy them." She opened one of her desk drawers and took out an old photograph of Dick in an elegant bonnet while sipping tea.  
  
"You always told me that your dad could throw me in jail if I didn't play with you. Sad thing is that you found a way to get Alfred to convince me that what you were saying was true.  
  
"Well sometime or another you became a good sport about it. Alfred probably thought it was best to get you out of that huge boring house and somewhere with a person your own age. Anyway, all of the girls didn't like me in grade school so I guess if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have gotten to do all of the girly things that I always wanted to do."  
  
"Uh huh. So you weren't doing it in hope of using it as blackmail in the near future?" he said laying over her bed.  
  
"Well it's always nice to kill two birds with one stone." She smiled as Dick stuck out his tongue and reached under his back to find out what he laid on.  
  
"Oh my god! Pookie? Did that big bully hurt you?" she said as she forcefully took the stuffed animal and hugged it tightly.  
  
"You still have Pookie? Dick said looking at the college student turn four years old in front of him. "And you've turned him against me?"  
  
"He hasn't left my side since he saw me." She said laying down beside Dick and raising the bear in the sky.  
  
"And that was the biggest mistake of his life." He said.  
  
"Yeah right, Dick. I was the hero of the day when I took him in here and gave him this great home." She said as she got up from the bed and placed her prized possession on her desk. "Most girls are lame and write in diaries but I just tell Pookie all of my secrets and problems."  
  
"Oh so now Pookie's life revolves around Barbara Gordon's secret life of "I think I should've studied harder on that Calc quiz today" and "I think Robert is cute."  
  
"Robert?" she asked.  
  
"The guy you've been seeing. Uh. It's a shame when I know more about a jer- guy I've never met than you do."  
  
"Oh. Uh. I was just surprised that you remembered him. Anyways I think we might just be friends. Who knows, I might have it bad for this other guy in our Criminology class."  
  
"More than I should know, Babs." Dick sighed trying to keep the poker face that he had had for the last ten years. "we should probably go now and you can save those details for Pookie."  
  
The two left the room, Barbara quickly grabbed her purse to rush after a disgruntled Dick.  
  
"You two have a fun evening. Although I doubt I have to say that. Barbara is a lot like her mother. Whenever she goes out to get a dress like that you know the night will be special." He smiled.  
  
"We will, Commissioner. It was nice seeing you."  
In the quiet town car Dick sat back in his seat as Barbara tried to figure out what to say.  
  
"Don't you think that Dick should take a night off, Alfred?" she said trying to cheer him up.  
  
"I am afraid that all of that is up to Master Grayson this evening." He politely said looking at Dick who was staring deeply outside of the window.  
  
"Remember that one place you used to take us after all of our dances, Alfred. They had the best floats. Do you remember what the name was?"  
  
"Roosevelt's." Dick said still looking outside of the window.  
  
"We should go there again. Are they still open?" Barbara said.  
  
"I hate to be the one to inform you that they have been closed for a few years now, Miss Gordon." Alfred said.  
  
"Really? Wander why that place had to close down?" she said as she rolled a finger through her hair.  
  
"I guess not everything can be there for the happy ending that you hoped for." Dick said under his breath.  
  
" What's got you down Grayson? Hopefully you haven't caught another case of being afraid to dance tonight." She said.  
  
"Nothing. I just feel out of place, that's all."  
  
"Why is that? If it's because we are college students then I can tell you that I'm not really worr"  
  
"It's not that." He interrupted her sentence. "I..uh.well it's just that I feel bad for not letting you go with that Robert guy or the other guy from the Criminology class. This would've been a great opportunity for you to get your feelings for him out of the way."  
  
"Dick, there's something I got to tell,"  
  
"Save the secrets for Pookie, Gordon. I'm not in the mood for them now."  
  
Barbara was far better known for her knuckle ball than for crying in front of anyone. As she held it in even Alfred couldn't help but give his boss's ward a scowl.  
  
"Pookie? Why I haven't heard that name mentioned in years." Alfred said while looking at his clock. "What ever has become of that loyal, dear bear?"  
  
"He's still in my room, Alfred. I sleep with him every night." She said looking at Dick.  
  
"Oh really, Miss Gordon? I do apologize but my memory has been fading me these days. How did you come about in getting that bear?"  
  
"Um, well, a few years after Dick came to live with Bruce my dad was kidnapped by a few of Thorne's men after Thorne was convicted. I had to stay inside of the police station because they were busy questioning me and afraid that I might become his next target. It was cold and lonely there, all I did was worry about what would have happened if I lost dad."  
  
"Ah, yes. And if I remember correctly I came over with Master Dick, isn't that correct sir?" he said as Dick rolled his eyes at his mentors intentions.  
  
"Yes, Alfred."  
  
"Dick and I played Monopoly in the little 'safe cell' back inside of the station. It was really bad because I used to talk to my dad before I went to bed. Tell him all of my little worries and secrets. Dick had to leave at nine or something and after that I was all alone. Wandering if Dad was okay. Of coarse Dick would talk about Batman solving the crime or how that it would be so easy that even Robin would probably get the job taken care of. He always knows how to make me laugh. The night before Robin actually found my dad and took him back without Batman's help Dick came into the cell and gave me an old beat up teddy bear that I guess you bought for me Alfred. It's pretty much become part of my family now, I guess I should thank you for that." She said hugging the old man like her father and giving him a simple peck on the cheek, causing the aging man to blush.  
  
"As flattered as I am Miss Gordon, I do believe that a few of those details are different in the way I remember the story. To get the facts straight, why don't you tell us how you remember the story."  
  
"Uh, everything Babs said sounded good." Dick said trying to act clueless to the old man's babbling.  
  
"Well Master Dick I guess I could tell the tale as I remember it but there are some certain parts of the story that you might not be ready for Miss Gordon to hear."  
  
"What is he talking about, Dick?" she said curiously.  
  
"I guess my story begins with Master Grayson impatiently coming over to me," Alfred's sentence was interrupted with his full permission.  
  
"The first time I ever saw you, the confident cheerful girl at the circus, cry around me was that day when Alfred and I stopped at the station. I guess I just became so used to seeing you as the person that cheers others up that I never expected to see you in that kind of state."  
  
"Yeah, well."  
  
"For the entire month or so Alfred and Bruce were ragging on me for still sleeping with a teddy bear at that age."  
  
"So you did like the bear Alfred gave you?" she said, awfully flattered.  
  
"I guess. I wasn't really born in a hospital, like most kids. My mom and dad had me while they were traveling. All of the performers said I looked like my father and knew I was made for a life different than most people.  
  
Problem was that I never got to go to toy stores or had any room for any of that stuff. So my mom spent a bunch of nights putting the bear together for me. She named it after one of the cubs that were part of our circus.  
  
After the incident, all I had from the circus was Pookie. Bruce and Alfred weren't around much and Pookie was sort of my only friend. Wayne Manor was just as scary as being in this huge city. Every time I smelled him he reminded me of the circus. I guess I was just worried about you at the time when you lost your dad. You looked like you really needed a friend."  
  
Barbara was silent in the car.  
  
"So it looks like we're here." Dick said looking out the window. He got out of his door to open the door for Barbara who looked like she was off in another world.  
  
"Master Grayson, I just remember I need to tell you something about your business meeting." Alfred said.  
  
Dick peered his head into the car as Barbara was greeted by an old friend of her fathers.  
  
"Sir, I shall page you if there is any problem." The aged butler said while looking at the reaction of his friend's face. "You haven't had one of these nights in awhile. Try to keep your mind off of the work."  
  
"I will, we're just going to be here for a few seconds." He said.  
  
"Sometimes those seconds are far more valuable than hours. Use them wisely. Miss Gordon may hope so."  
  
"Just page me if anything happens, Alfred." Dick demanded as he shut the door.  
  
Barbara was poised in the middle of the steps that led to the large ballroom. They could hear the chorus of violins playing from the distance, her eyes were patiently waiting for him to come up.  
  
"Dick why didn't you ever tell me about...." she said as their Professor came up to them.  
  
"Miss Gordon, Mister Grayson. For two people who only plan to be here for a few moments you are awfully over dressed." Angler said on the steps, looking back for someone.  
  
"Well as long as it helps our grade," Dick said shuffling his hands in his pockets.  
  
"So do you think we will get to meet Mr. Rayhan, tonight?" Barbara asked, scratching he shoulder. She was getting cold.  
  
"Of coarse. Mr. Rayhan will be sharing a table with us tonight before he gives his speech." Angler mumbled as Officer Montoya came into their circle, wrapping her arm around their teacher.  
  
"Officer Montoya, you look so.so beautiful," Barbara was surprised to see her father's colleague in an amazingly elegant black and blue gown. This was unusual because she had never seen Montoya in anything more than a dirty street cop uniform.  
  
"Why thank you, Barbara. You look lovely as usual tonight as well," she was surprised with all of the people entering the festivities.  
  
"Tell me officer, how has the case of the Jade cat been working out?" Dick asked.  
  
"Officer Bullock and I have been working really hard on it." She said.  
  
"Barbara and Dick are both working on this special research report in my Advanced Criminology class that covers the same crime you are covering, Renée." Angler said proudly.  
  
"Really? Well I can only say that I hope you two don't solve the case before I do or I might be looking for a new job," she said, winking at Angler as they proceeded to walk into the main room.  
  
"If I had known we were going to meet Rayhan I would have brought my copy for him to sign," she whispered into Dick's ear.  
  
"You owning a book? Doesn't that break some kind of librarian's oath?" Dick said.  
  
"I was planning on donating the copy to the library," she replied.  
Taking a seat at the center of the round table, renowned writer Raymond Rayhan was playing it cool. Rayhan was middle aged, with dark eyes and a coye smile. After twenty minutes of being greeted by complete strangers he looked tired of receiving the attention.  
  
"So Mr. Rayhan, what is your latest book about?" Dick said as the others feasted on their salads.  
  
"Well I'm not supposed to disclose this information until my speech but since you are the ward of my publisher I guess I can let you in." he said placing the fork on his plate and receiving the full attention of the table.  
  
"Over the last three years I have been in Gotham tracking down former criminals who have been let go due to problems within the court. Almost 80 percent of them continued to pursue crime. Now why would this be?" he said.  
  
"They're in need of money?" Barbara said shyly, only to receive a sharp shake of the head from the speaker.  
  
"That was my initial belief, Miss Gordon, yet most of these men had qualified well paying jobs before they turned evil."  
  
"So you're saying that they loved the game?" Dick asked.  
  
"You're getting their, Mr. Grayson. See most of these criminals were caught by a citizen which lead to many problems within the court, thus letting them go. Now all of you may be familiar with this citizen, he goes by the name of 'Batman.' " the writer said with much pride.  
  
"What are you trying to say?" Montoya said very surprised at where the guest of honor was leading them.  
  
"I came up with two theories. One is that Batman may be a ploy, criminals who have been scouted out by the police have often been caught by Batman around the same time period. Due to problems within our judicial system they are let go immediately."  
  
"That's crazy," the usually respectful Barbara spouted out.  
  
"Well if it is, then why would the top Defense Attorney in the nation, Harvey Dent become a psychopath due to the hands of Batman. Also why would this "Batman" never show his face, he could easily be a former criminal for all we know? Finally why would almost every major serial criminal in Gotham get exempt from prison for insanity? Do you know that the primary reason for their diagnosis of insanity comes from their obsession of this 'Batman' ?"  
  
"I'm surprised you believe in this," Pr. Angler said, scratching his chin.  
  
"Well, Professor, I will be able to tell you more later tonight," He grinned as their dinners were placed in front of them.  
  
"Dick Grayson, why you sour puss." Barbara heard a chirpy voice come from behind her. When she turned around she saw Bruce Wayne's new secretary and former swimsuit model, Katie Mygul.  
  
"Oh, hello Katie." Dick said surprised to see her as she put her hands on his shoulders.  
  
"I thought I might see you here. You should've invited me, I had to come by myself to represent the Wayne Foundations."  
  
"Well I'm representing my school for tonight, Katie." Dick said realizing that his table was looking for an introduction.  
  
"Katie, these are some friends of mine. Professor Angler, head of GCU's Criminology Department."  
  
"Hello, it's a pleasure."  
  
"Renee Montoya, part of the police department."  
  
"Wow your dress is so pretty."  
  
"And I'm sure you've heard of writer Raymond Rayhan."  
  
"Sure have, it's a pleasure to meet you."  
  
"And this is my good friend, Barbara Gordon."  
  
"Hey," Katie said, "Well colleague, it's been a busy week, want to take it out on the dance floor with me?"  
  
"Uh.sure." Dick said as Rayhan and the Professor gave him approving glances as Barbara's elbows hit the table.  
  
"Well Professor, I think I might turn young again and steal your fine date on the dance floor," Rayhan said as he invited his arm out for Montoya.  
  
"Feel free," the Professor said as he turned his attention to Barbara. "I don't believe it's against the rules to dance with a student, Miss Gordon, is it?"  
  
"I'm afraid I'm not much of a dancer, sir?" she said as she saw Dick dipping the former center fold to the delight of the audience.  
  
"Well most Criminology majors aren't" he said, sipping his wine.  
  
"That's what I was lead to believe." She said softly. "Maybe we could prove them wrong?"  
  
"Will do." He smiled as they centered themselves on the dance floor.  
  
"Miss Grayson, if you don't mind me asking. What is the situation with you and Mister Grayson?" he asked in a polite way.  
  
"Oh, what do you mean?" she said trying to stall the question as she punished herself by seeing Katie Mygul wrapping herself all over a laughing Dick.  
  
"Well are you two in a relationship is the question I believe I am asking?" he asked.  
  
"Just friends I'm just a 'good friend' to Dick." She said.  
"Bruce would fire me if he knew I could dance with you like this," Katie Mygul laughed.  
  
"No, I am surprised that doing this wasn't part of the interview," Dick said.  
  
"Hahaha, Dick you're so harsh," she said patting her hand on his chest.  
  
"Well, I guess." He mumbled, watching Barbara dance slowly with the dashing professor.  
  
"Where did you learn to dance this way?" she said as her twirled her around.  
  
"I went to a dance a few years ago in High School, I had this date who I was afraid to dance with because I never had the time to learn how. So I, uh, sort of got a few lessons from this person."  
  
"Oh, who?" she asked.  
  
"Oh, well you don't want to know," he began blushing.  
  
"C'mon Grayson, let it out," she said lightly punching him in the stomach.  
  
"Err.. Alfred Pennyworth." He mumbled.  
Barbara heard a loud laugh from across the Ballroom. She pleasantly let go of her hold of Professor Angler's hand and began to make her way over to the other side of the dance floor. She saw the tall long haired blond and tapped her on the shoulder while trying not to make a fist with her other hand.  
  
"Excuse me, I was wandering if I could enjoy some of this wonderful Grayson humor tonight." She said as she said that Katie Mygul was no longer dancing with Dick but with Lucius Fox instead. When she turned around to rush away she saw her face almost hit the chest of Dick.  
  
"Care to dance, Gordon?" he said, looking down bat his polished shoes.  
  
"It looks like someone stole your dance partner, Dick" she said rolling her eyes towards the super model.  
  
He took hold of her hand and waste and as much as she tried denying it she couldn't. They were dancing but their grips were weak in fear of each other letting go.  
  
"Yeah, well Babs I guess I was just sort of shocked?" he said softly.  
  
"Shocked about what?" she asked.  
  
"That you and Angler. That Angler is the guy in our class," he said not able to look her in the eye.  
  
"Dick you don't understand," she said sharply.  
  
"You know, Babs, it's okay. I'm not going to turn you in or anything. I guess after that Gill Mason thing I should have figured that you were into older, more mature men."  
  
"Just like you're into older, mature bimbos. You know this whole time you got me to believe that you weren't going to turn into Bruce and look at you," she said, almost a little bit too noisy for the crowd.  
  
"Well the one thing you can learn is that 'bimbos' won't break your heart." He said.  
  
"So Dick Grayson finally admits that he's afraid of something." She replied.  
  
"Sorry, I guess for being a girl 'who hasn't been asked out in forever' it must be weird going through two guys in a matter of days." He shot back.  
  
The two looked at everyone giving them stunned looks and they went silent.  
  
"I'm sorry, Dick. Let's just act normal. Good friends don't go through this." She mumbled.  
  
"No, Babs, it's okay. I'm just going through a lot of stuff while Bruce has been gone." He said.  
  
"Well, I might not be CEO material but I would really like to help. Even for a pretty boy you don't deserve all of this pressure." She smiled.  
  
"I wish you could but I don't want you to ever go through any of this. That's why I've been keeping you away." He said, her hand feeling warmer with in his.  
  
"And I know what you mean, you've been my best friend for years. Even in high school when you were away for all that time I never stopped seeing you that way, as hard as I tried."  
  
"If I tell you something will you promise you won't run away?" Dick asked. "I know you can keep my secret but I'm just worried about you running away?"  
  
"Sure but Dick before you do I have something that is definitely more shocking to say and after I say it I'm afraid that you might just worry about me or feel bad for me which is the last thing I want because I can't help it."  
  
"Well the thing that I have to tell you is something that I am afraid let you be a part of. As much as I want you to. But I've been lying to you."  
  
"Dick it's okay, I haven't been completely honest with you either."  
  
"Let's just do this on three," she whispered in his hear, leaving her other ear open for his own whisper.  
  
"Don't run away," he pleaded.  
  
"One." She said.  
  
"Two." He said.  
  
"Three." They said together - their eyes looking in the same direction.  
  
"Dick, I'm in"  
  
"Barbara, I'm"  
Bust as fate had it, through the clear nights sky they both saw a skylight hit the air. The silloute of a bat clearly hung within their eyes as the many in attendance gasped loudly, still in amazement after all of the years.  
  
As they let go of each other's grasp and heard the crowd go back to normal, they both took time to think about what they should do.  
  
"Dick, um we should get."  
  
"Yeah, I probably should be" they said as the music started.  
  
Strangers in the night  
  
Dick walk down the dance floor toward their table to get his cell phone as he felt his hand suddenly be carried away.  
  
"No, Dick we're dancing one last time."  
  
"But I have to go, Babs"  
  
Exchanging glances  
  
"If you don't dance with me now, my father will arrest you"  
  
Wond'ring in the night  
  
"Alright, but it will have to be a quick one."  
  
What were the chances  
  
"Remember the night you didn't dance with me in high school? I requested this song for us. It was the song they played at my parents wedding."  
  
We'd be sharing love  
  
"My parents played this in their routine. They met when mom had to replace another performer after only a few weeks of practice."  
  
Before the night was through  
  
"I play it at night sometimes, if dad isn't around."  
  
Something in your eyes  
  
"It's been in my mind a lot lately. But you're not a stranger Babs, I 've known you forever."  
  
Was so inviting  
  
"Dick I have to tell you this before I leave."  
  
Something in your smile  
  
"Babs, my life is so complicated right now. And I want to tell you but I don't have the"  
  
Was so exciting  
  
"Dick, I haven't known what I wanted for a long time. Sometimes I don't get you, sometimes I don't get us, sometimes I don't get me but."  
  
Something in my heart  
  
"Babs,"  
  
Told me I must have you  
  
"Yes, Dick?"  
Strangers in the night  
  
"Alfred's paging me."  
  
Two lonely people we were  
  
"Dick, just wait until the song is over. Please."  
  
Strangers in the night  
  
"But what I have to say will take time."  
  
Up to the moment when we  
  
"Dick I'm going to tell you, now. I just have a bad feeling that something is going to happen to us after tonight and I don't want you to know."  
  
Said our first hello  
  
"Then be like me and promise you'll come back. Sometimes the only reason I get to have these moments is because I get to come back to this. I'm really not Bruce, I don't have his ambitions."  
  
Little did we know  
  
"Dick what I'm going to tell you is going to change everything. I'm Barbara Gordon but I'm also."  
  
Love was just a glance away  
  
"Do you believe in fate?"  
  
A warm embracing dance away  
  
"Yes but"  
  
And ever since that night  
  
"Babs I think the reason why we don't know these secrets of each other is simply because we are not ready to know."  
  
We've been together  
  
"Dick will you just stop worry about this stupid business and realize"  
  
Love In love forever  
  
"Babs I don't know what I want in life, and I don't know what in my life I want to change. And after this is all over, then maybe I will be ready. Everything is so complicated right now and that doesn't even include the stuff I have to take care of"  
  
It turned out so right  
  
"You're right, Grayson. Sometimes choosing just takes time."  
  
For strangers in the night  
The two walked down the far right of the stairs, trying to escape the news reporters huddling around Detective Montoya. They stopped to listen to her speech and reluctantly reflect.  
  
"And I assure you that Commissioner Gordon as well as our police force can take care of crime with out Batman much like the same way they have successfully for the last week. The Gotham community should realize that there are heroes who dedicate their days and nights to crime and that Batman only takes part in crime for only a handful of that time.  
  
. 


End file.
